The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1910-01-10
BOY GIVES TALK
TO INSTRUCTORS
Eleven Year Old Prodigy Aston,
iShes Harvard Professors
OF Mathematics.
DISCUSSES FOURTH DIMENSION
Otherwise Normal Boy Excites Wonder
of Learned Audience by Answering
Questions and leeturing
Shows Unusual knowledge.

iih-NhSthNu, IL 9etI--oiu w IMAM
James Sidis. probably the most re.
markable boy in the United States. ant
said 10 be the most learned undergrad
uate I'm any institution OF learning in
the world, calmly stood before q
crowded lecture room filled with pro-
fessors and men whose lives have been
devoted to the study of mathematics
and lectured for two hours last night
i'm the commons rooms or Conant hall
at Harvard university. says the Boston
journal. His subject was that most in
tricate and fancifuI of the mathema-
tician's realm THE Fourth Dimen-
sion" ''i
Sldis, who still wears knicIerDocllers
is known as the boy who, before being
registered last fall as a special stu
dent at Harvard, had PASSED the en-
trance examinations to Tech. could
speak five lanGuages fluently. besides
having q thorough knowledge of Latin
and Greek, apd knew enough of chem
istry and physics and kindred subjects
to make him eligible for admission to
the Harvard Medical school
Pace Too Fast for Listeners.
Last night seemingly unaffected by
the scores of cleaning eye glasses and
spectacles fastened upon him by the
members of the Mathematical club of
Harvard, under whose auspices the lee
ture was held, young Sdis calmly
measured his distance. took a hop. skin
and jump, and landed squarely and
with perfect balance precisely i'm the
center of the fourth dimension. the
where the learned mathe-
Of many ages have passed
many a carefrfe moment. after working
hours.
But young Sidis had been there many |
an afterhooR when-it Was too rainy or
TOO snowy for a good time outdoors |
and he Showed many Hof' Harvards
most skilled professors the correct way
to take the hurdles in foutth dimen
sion land. In fact. it was very evident
from the faces Of his listeners that his
pace was too fast and that he early
Aluded his trained followers. In the
games played in fourth dimension land
The good player.is he who can find new
'hortcuts in arriving at points faces
ma sides. When you find al new short
'ut your get the same pleasant sensa-
ION as when you are alberto fit two
pieces into n jigsaw4 PUZZLE at the
same time. . s Is4v,
Comes Next After Calculus.
The fourth dimension. il NAV be
laid. is. that branch of mathematics
which one revels in after he has worn
he arithmetic, the algebra. the plain.
old and spherical geometry. the as
ronomy and the calculus into; shreds. ,
After you have passed through these f,
ather hearty and rather pfosaieJ
curses, you are then given your re
vard-the joy of gamboling in the
ourth dimension. You have heard of
he fourth estate? Well. it's rather the =
anne sort of thing, except that only !
can get into the for
1er
To really explain the beauties of the :,
9me. one must use it's own particular
lang, which involves ."co-ordinates.
Varlapies, "sines," "cosines'' and .
Many others more charming even than :,
nose used in baseball. But the real !,
ituation is that we live in a three !,
lmension world. We know length.
readth and, thickness. Suppose the :,
Dom we lived in had one more d.
tension. a fourth? Well, there Won
re.
Difficult to Explain.
The mathematcians by the use of n 3
tue Fancy and a number of signs and
can construct the field of plav
Ut OF their imagination This game
as been going on for some years. A
ew generations back, an English n
fooled an eager follow W
~ INTO believing that the spirits of our 5
'refathers lived in n state where there Of
ere four dimensions and that four s
ais could not hold them. This idea 80
nat the fourth dimension is n happv W
uniting ground for disembodied spirits al
float about i'm has been explodad ST
ne fourth dimension has Ats difficult 81
es of explanation. nevertheless. b
Professor Bouten. one of Haryard's al
Est IN the figuring line said last night In
the few minutes given him To show al
'at atter all Sidis had not fully ex- al
lusted the subject. that every time he IN
led to explain Euler's theory before kt
classroom of students he got "all IN
essed up" vi
Answers All Questions. pc
Sidis opened his lecture nv saving pa
at ne had not expected To be asked IN
lecture so early in his life and then su
silly dropped into the regular arts en-
I'd methods Of the college professor Tn
stures and all. The easy manner IN nj
nnch, III ms discussions. he approach
ana passed over the world noraI,ol
ipedon' made the professors easn
~ when ne began to coin n few 81
'rus ana between breaths slipped out sd
en- words as "hectatonacosahedr Ca
the president of the society had 70 nH
en the windows to give the audience
pre- air. on
After drawing figures and nrov,,s
eories until everyone in the room, Ia
Is amazed. young Sidis suddenlv or
inced at his watch I'm true nIa,sou,.
gle and brought his lecture to n close IL
ne" tne professors asked him uues- ~.
ms for n half 49,. a. nd