The Washington times., 1932-06-13

the same The one exception met taught geometry and
say New isn't that beautfuI?-and it The rest of
them made it seem like so much nonsense"
j Figures and Apples
At the age of might not have understood the law
but still think that it could have been suggested to me-
Children rapidly that three apples and two apples are
five appIe and that nine crayons taken away from IL
crayons leave if memory three crayons. But
that three and two five and nine from IL leaves
threethese quite different propositions Inc 1gures
bear relation to apples and they are arbitrary
signs which parents and teachers have invented to con-
fuse the little mind The X and the 60 not real-
ties to the child 9x9 does not mean the same thing as
nine boys each playing with nine marbles.
Yet 1 think that children quite capable of appre-
hendng the real beauties of mathematical principles Inc
law to which I alluded is that mathematics is all law
That means always and universally, If nine (boys or
girls cats natons possess nine maroes or oeaus r
kittens mions the total will be 81 1t can be put TO
the child that because this is always true mulphcauon
is not vexaon it is me-saver. t is, in fact short
cut addition, just division is shortcut suDtracton
but children are told this and the relation between
adding two and two and two side and multiplying
two by three on the other, is never made clear.)
If Mr. Forrest thinks that children cannot master uni
versal laws l answer that they are almost morDloy
anxious for the ultimate cerantes and securities OF law
They ask you what after spring and you say sum-
mer and they say "Suppose winter came after Sprlng
and YOU say Summer after spring. But they are
not Satisfied and ask "Does always always al
wavs always come after spring.? And II you feasSure
them they ridculously happy.
.Another Shortcut
Schools get you into algebra at the of l9 or So
They tell you about and the square root OF ana
to the ninth power But then they do not tell you
that just as two of anything means any
number in short that algebra shortcut arithmetic
They bog you in proportions without ever letting you
know that proportion is something you can study IN
statue they give you the diameter to find the crcum
ference of circle but they do not tell you that the re-
1aton between the circumference and the diameter can
be observed in dynamos. The most fascinating Dranch
of ALGEBRA permutations and combinations, leads to
philosophy You would know it.
think of these things with vexation because so much
of modern science is based mathematics The way
atoms combine the scale of weights of the elements and
far more absruse problems, have specific connection
i with mathematics. 1t makes me angry when read
Sir James Jeans to the effect that 1--WE shall measure time
in terms of mysterious unit equal to second multi
ufied by the square root of minus one-not because
do not understand him don't understand carburetor
but because do not know how to go about get
fnq the knowledge which would lead me to understand
The whole universe says Jeans, shows evidence of
controlling power which thinks little as we do not
morally or aestheticaly, but mathematicaly And to
most of us this sublime principle the binomial
theorem which we couldn't understand in high school,