Evening star., 1944-12-12
This and That
BIZ Charles E. Trdce1Defl.
SILVER SPRING, Md.

Dear Sir:
This concerns two paragraphs from
your article Of recent date about the
crickets. You phrased the formula for
arriving at the temperature of room
by counting the number of chirps, as
follows:
ct stands for temperature, and is
arrived at by taking the number OF
chirps per minute, subtracting 40, and
dividing the result by 4, then adding so
to this
IN, in the formula, stands for the
number of chirps per minute. The for
mula reads T equals so plus tthe
number of chirps per minute) minus
40 divided by A.
"A little elementary algebra indicates
that your formula is unnecessarily COM
plicated. That is, your first paragraph
could have been worded: arrived at
by adding to 40 one quarter Of the
number of chirps per minute. And the
second paragraph is not needed,
"Quizzically yours, r. c. t.
**
In any formula, my dear sir the diff
ference between the literary tempera-
ment and the mathematical tempera-
ment must be considered.
In the main. human beings are di-
vided, or divide themselves, into two
main groups. The first is what may be
called the literary temperament, COM
prising all newspapermen, writer's of
books, dreamers and even lawyers and
many others too numerous to mention,
such as musicians artists, etc.
To all these people algebra Is some
10 ,ff irl,
fear, hate and despise the higher math-
ematics. They were good" at compost
ton, writing reading and literature in
the schools.
The second group is the mathematical
temperament including chemists, physi-
cists, businessmen, navigators. automo-
bile mechanics and host of others.
They were good" in the schools in all
that the other group failed in, but
usually feared and shrunk from liter
airy composition.
Here We have two grand divisions of
human beings, and never the two shall
meet, at least mentally. Often in real
life they do meet, with great profit To
each other, the one admiring the Other
immensely for what he can dc.
1t is partly due to this feeling, no
doubt, that people who were not good
writer's in the schools so often look with
great admiration on good writing later
and like nothing better than to culti-
vate the acquaintance of such people.
A personal anecdote is illustrative
One day we had big sheet of paper
in the typewriter, and were wonder
ing what on earth to write about, when
prominent businessman, who hap
pened to be in the building, came up
quietly and stood looking down over our
shoulder.
Finally he smiled and murmured
softly, "To think, that you have nothing
there now at all and soon you will have
something" Which would show, cer-
tainly, that there is no hard and fast
line, and that honest admiration bridges
many gaps. ..
The man of literary bent, on the
other hand, often admires no one more
than the plumber, who can tear into
mess of pipes and bring order out of
chaos. The man of literary trends has
incumbent on him the duty of admira-
ton. He must find joy in what others
do, no matter what it is they do. It Is
up to him to find sermons in stones, as
the poet put 1t, and to see beauty in
squirrels, birds, sailors, aviators, war;
riors, old ladies In buses, people eat
ing in restaurants, worshipping in
churches, men throwing red-hot rivcts,
sandhogs, burly policemen, children on
their way to school, little girls with
faces glowing like angels, bulldogs chas-
ing cats, and a million more. If he can
do this, to some degree, honestly and
without fubdub, he may be forgiven an
occasional dabble in mathematics, even
II his formula is bit complicated. The
wonder ID that he got it right.
e