Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1874-08-20
EDUCATIONAL COLUMN.
Edited and Conducted 5y
j. f. .LANGENBA Ugh.
Mathematical Science.

according to the current belief, arithmetic
Is the science of numbers What then is
the use of any other? School boys think
that. when they thumb over their arith.
metic. they are fit for any business. All
our writer's on arithmetic define it-''The
Science of Numbers Why then blame
boys for what they have been taught by
their highest authority? Arithmetic is
not the science of numbers. You NAV
say this is bold expression. Let us see
II it be true Here is merchant, he per.
forms all his calculations by arithmetic
here is banker. broker, collector of tax
es, &c, their calculations are perform ed
by arithmetic. Here We stop. Arith-
'netic, without offering a definition, goes
not one step beyond commercial life.
This may, and must be strange to the
schooiboy. Look. at our countrv-3,O ,OO0,-
| QUO square miles. How do we know it.
by arithmetic? 1t has no more to do
with 1t than with shoemaking Here is Q
farm, from which the owner wants o5
acres cut of, parallel To the State Road
How fs 1T to be done-by arithmetics 1t
has no more to do with it than baking.
Here Is a site on which we must have a
public building, but the mason, ere he
can commence, must gcu the plan from an
architect. How is the plan drawn-by
anthmeticg Arithmetic has no more to
do with the calculations of architecture
proper (Save the cost of materially, than
with making butter Here is a machine
shop; come and look at all the wheels.
belts, pullies, &c, look at the arrange
ment. How were they placed-no small
matter-by arithmetic? 1t has no more
to do with the calculations of machine
shop than with saving wood. The ship
Atlantic is i'm port. bound for Liverpool
How will the captain steer her thilher-
by arithmetic? No it has no more tc do
with sea calculations than with fishing
Our years contains days, hours, minutes
and seconds. How has this been found
,out-by as;thmetie.s No.. See that curve
on the railroad the outer curve elevated.
For what? See that suspension bridge.
tunnel, stecplc, height Of the Himmalaya
Mountains. How were these things done
or found? The schoolboy SAYS by arith-
metic. We say no. Here are barrels ill
led with liquid for market here or Europe.
How are they measured-for measured
they must be? BY arithmetic? No.
We see man in any business outside of
commerce, that man follows certain math-
ematcal td'os. seldom of his own study:
generally such men have books containing
well digested code of laws, in the shane
of Rutes drawn up by some emsaent MUTE
endticol scholar Hence the difficulty of
finding man successful, in anything to
which he had not been bred. Had Ar.
chimedes left his geometrical diagrams in
his study, the Romans would have been
masters of Syracuse sooner. Geometry
not arithmetic, saved the city. Had
Newton and his peers left their mathe-
matical investigations, and turned the
energies of their mighty minis to insigni-
hcant things, it is morally certain that our
m>cto;ttc0j scorks would be few. clumsy
and defective. Look at the grist mill of
Old. We swains see one of these men
sauntering by the roadside, incapable of
the common enjOyments OF men. from the
abtruse nature of their studies. and look
on them rs fools; yet their works may
Cverturn all the existing modes of life,
and give new direction to the energies
of man. Archimedes drew mathematical
hgures on his body, which had been
anointed with oil. in the theatre, when
forced thither by his friends.
Arithmetic is collection of very crude !
rules, and cannot be taught successfully,
except by the sciences of geometry and
algebra combined. Barrels, &C., are
measured by comic sections; the calcula- |
tions of architecture. marine investiga.
tons, machine shops, altitude of noun !
tains, level and curve of railroads, DC, are
al' wrought out by abstruse mathematical /
of which arithmetic hardly |
terms the A B G. or introduction. Any
young ma 4 with ambition to ercel, posses.
sing eaergy, industry, tact and talent, and
the ai6 of good teacher, can learn the
essentia; parts of these sciences in a few
years. Then he is theorist. He must
go to the machinist, engineer or architect
to the workshop, the Office, or the sea.
After years of practice, he is a master.
How difficult for some parents to under
stand the necessity Of these sciences for
their children-anything beyond arith-
metic! How difficult for teachers who
have capacity to introduce anything be-
yond the ordinary course-,hose stern
and. abstruse sciences, by which the
Egyptian discovered the boundaries ofhis
Iarm, when old Niles food had passed I
away; by which Archimedes saved Syra-
case, and rendered it famous as his tomb. !
1t is difficult indeed to understand how
an engineer will open tunnel on each
side of hill, set the laborers to work,