Evening star., 1924-09-14
Scientific World B0,us to d. C..
MAJ, on Jupiter's Fifth Moon
James Robertson Works
Years to Calculate
Orbit of Satellite.
Not More THAI, Eight or
Ten Persons in World
Understand Discovery.

| This is the story of discovery
| which only eight or ten .lnen in the
world understand.
| Rather il is the story of white
haired gentleman who has walked roads
In infinite distances no other mortal
ever has known---of James Robertson.
one Of the greatest theoretical mathe-
matcians living.
Some days ago there came to The
Star office peculiar document-a
mathematical paper written in the
uninteliigible language of sines, cosines,
parallaxes, mutations and professions,
with strange Greek letters stuck into
involved formulas like lamp poles on
rutty suburban roads.
Now the young men who make up the
average newspaper staff can boast of
no profound learning. They are COM
petent enough to deal with church
socials or world wars-but when II
comes to such subjects as the explora-
ton of the infinitely little. they usually
get "scooped."
Might Mum Gravity Law.
If a gentleman named Sir Isaac
Newton were to walk up to the city
editors desk tomorrow and lay down a
bulky document for release on receipt,
filed with the original deductions that
led to the discovery Of the law of
gravity, the chances are the papers
would go in the waste basket, and one
If the two or three biggest stories in
the history of the world would be lost
to journalism.
But in this particular case the city
editor promised the lady who brought
in the paper that he would investigate.
He didn't see the story-he's rather a
rhav fo nd
.parallaxes. 1t all looked like so much
chaff for the burning. But he kept his
promise. He called one of his dumbest
| reporters-a fellow who thinks a cosine
is a prehistoric pig and suspects that
a mutation is a bumblebee Huttering
around the South Pole.
The reporter went to the Naval OBJ
servatory to interview Mr.. Robertson
on the subject of the paper, the Fifth
Sattalite Of Jupiter. He didn't know
what it was all about when he started.
He knew still less about it when he
came back, in spite of the astronomers 8
two hours of patient explanation. He
returned to the Office more inclined to
write a poem than a news article. Mr..
Robertson's life and work. is more ap-
propriate for verse than prose.
Aptitude for the Intricate. .,
ago James Robertson was a student
at the University of Michigan. des-
tined to study law but with a bent
for mathematics. His mathematical
ability attracted the attention of his
instructors-only one student in
thousands has the faculty for in
volved mathematical reasoning. Rob-
ertson had loved mathematics ever
since his freshman algebra days in
~ L. 81 -~i
ence through trigonometry, calculus
and differential equations into the
rarified atmosphere of astronomy.
At that time Simon Newcome, the
most celebrated astronomer of his
day. was head of the Naval Observa-
tory in Washington. He heard of the
young Michigan student and invited
him to come to the Capital for year
of study with the facilities of the OBJ
servatory, which has, by the way, the
finest mathematical library on the
continent.
Robertson came. The fifth moon of
Jupiter had just been discovered. The
problem was to find it's orbit. just the
direction in which it rotated around
the great planet 465 million miles
away from the earth. Now this fifth
moon is very minute bit of matter
indeed. out there in the vast Of inf
mite distance. 1t is SO small that
Robertson himself has never been
able to calculate any mass for it
just a speck in the telescope under
the most favorable conditions. 1t
would give any ordinary mortal. from
newspaper reporter to President
Coolidge. headache to consider the
enormous amount of figuring neces-
sary to determine its orbit.
Gave Students Hard Ones.
1t used to be the practice of Simon
Newcome to give to his students the
most complicated problems that arose
in astronomy. He didn't expect them
to solve them. He expected them to
figure until they got hopelessly in
volved in the intricate mazes Of fig
ures and mathematical signs. Then
he would take the problem himself
and try to finish it.
To Robertson he gave the problem
of computing the orbit Of this fifth
moon. Up to then the young man had
intended to return to college and
study law. He started figuring. The
wear sped by and he was far from his
goal. He figured and figured-every
evening at his home, every day at the
He went. to Europe to
Paris, Berlin and Petrograd. For IL
years he figured, checking and re-
checking his results. At last he was
able to tell the world just how the
fifth moon of Jupiter travelled
through space. On the wings of
mathematics he had transcribed
vision and distance. Law was for
gotten.
Now astronomers in Paris and Ber-
lin were working on the same prob
lem and they arrived at different re-
suits. Robertson was confident. Re-
Gently came his triumph. His figures
were officially accepted by the astro-
nomical world as the correct ones.
They will stand as representing the
exact orbit.
Results Given to World.
These figures have just been pub
lished. They were what constituted
the strange document that came to
the city editors desk. Mr.. Robertson
spoke of them with the enthusiasm,
one might say with the mysticism CT
a poet After all, mathematics and
poetry are not SO far apart.
The reporter, graceless child of
busy streets and rushing crowds who
the eagles on a silver dollar
as a Buddhist priest worships hair
from the head Of Gautama, sat alone
with this man who has left puny
wanders among strange stars, in the
hour Of his triumph. The scene had
4 medieval, almost a monastic, set
in the shadowy library of |
the Naval Observatory with stray |
sunlight penetrating high, arched |
windows and the walls covered with |
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