The Worcester spy., 1899-04-16

soon as they get into business, they are
able to do computations that l could
mt do in the same time myself. 1t is
the difference between an abstract idea
and a bread and butter hustle for ex-
istence
In the same way, there are a lot of
problems in the school arithmetic that
my pupils can do that even you" turn
ing to the banker. couldn't solve to
save your fortune, without book. You
could do them once, but YOU have for
gotten just as they will in few years. 3"
The banker looked incredulous Il
don't believe there is any problem in
your arithmetic l can't do" said he.
Il was the star of my class in arith-
metic once"
The schoolmaster smiled Find the
cube root of 236 SIS, 495 - he said
The banker and all the rest of the
assemblage reached for their pencils.
That's easy" said the bOastful one,
you I, Mt it off in groups of three
figures and then you take the largest
cube in the left-hand group, and place
its cube root in the QUOtient and then
you get your complete divisor by -
by squaring the, - by squaring the,
- the banker was growing nervous,
by taking the square of -" He was
figuring confusedly and making mis-
takes in addition by this time, and the
others had given it up long ago.
You see it isn't so easy, after all
You could do that once in a minute or
two, but now you can't because you
haven't had to use it for so long. You
couldn't do simple interest either if
your living didn't depend on it."
L suppose the hardest thing to
teach, really, is the multiplication
table, he resumed, and I don't think
it could be done at all if it didn't rhyme
so nicely and if it was not such fun for
small children to sing it in chorus.
There is no process of reasoning that
Will teach it, for it is an abstract idea.
Nobody can prove that two and two
make four, they just do"
Speaking of the hardest problem" ,"
said the college man. who had been
musing, I remember the queerest
thing that ever happened in my life
was in connection with that same most
difficult one aforesaid 1t was in nv
junior year and we were having high
differential equations to good old Prof
Sinesquare. We had a text book that
was all the vogue then and is used some
now, I believe-Bowser' calculus.
There was one problem in that book
| that nobody had ever solved. The au-
thor never solved it, or if he did he kept
it strictly to himself. 1t was about a
fox that started ahead of a pack OF
hounds, who were all scattered about
at given distances from the fox The
fox Travelled due east with a certain
velocity and the dogs chased him ali
| the time, running straight towards
| him. The question was TO find when and
ar what distance which one of the
| hounds would catch the fox, having the
necessary data given. It looked easy
! but 1t wasn't
| We'll, the day We came to that sec
| ton of the book the professor adopted
| a new method of teaching. He sent eacf
one Of US to the board and asked US
/ how many Of the problems in the lessor
/ assigned, which included the "hardest
/ one6' we had done. Now all but one OF
/ US had heard of that "hardess one
/ from members of previous classes. anC
/ we Warily answered one less than the
number in the lesson.
! But that unfortunate member ot
/ the class was one Of the happv-go.
lucky fellows who never looked at E
1 book and yet was well up at the heaC
of the class, and he failed to compre.
/ hend the reason for our bashfulness. 81
he boldly answered that he had don,
! them all. A wicked little twinkle came
into the eye of the old professor as h,
remarked,
We'll, s. you may do the 18th.
which was the hardest one
/ $ never turned hair although
the rest Of the gang began stuffin,
their handkerchiefs in their mouths t,
prevent an Outburst. S. looked a
4 the thing for a minute and then he be
gan to put down things on the board.
+. Wonderful as it may seem. he ha,
the problem done inside the hour. an,
nobody has been able TO prove that hi
solution wasn't right yet. although
many have tried. You see. the profes
sor and all the rest had been trying t
t work II out by the principle of hyper
bolc differentiation. but s. hit o-
, the method of finding the euuitangen
tial asymptotiC curve equations TO tn
directrices of the lemniscates describe
by the fox and the hounds respectively
and in this manner" but the 1ae
of the gathering had fled and the col
Ilegian was cOmmuning with hinsalf