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University Daily Kansan
Tuesday, Feb. 9, 1965
Calculus Solves Life's Problems
In a KU classroom 25 students in business, entomology, and geography are studying calculus, which is strange enough.
But even stranger is the calculus they are studying. It is filled with examples and problems from the social and economic areas of life rather than the customary examples from science and engineering.
They are learning to apply modern mathematics to the everyday problems of people.
NEARBY IN AN office with a view over the Kansas River valley, a short, white-haired professor with the stump of a cigar clenched between his teeth is writing equations on a blackboard and explaining the symbols to his fellow researchers.
The value of the research in the mathematics office is less obvious. In a way, the fact that KU can give a new course in mathematics in other areas of study is made possible by
(One of a Series)
the frontier research KU is doing in mathematics and the mathematical scientists it has brought to the Lawrence campus to do it.
More important, perhaps, mathematics is the heart of the civilization in which we live. It nourishes the sciences at the University and throughout the state and nation.
Listen to mathematics professor Bob Adams:
"WE TRY TO show our students that math is two things. First, it's a way of 'manipulating symbols' to solve a problem. That's important, but more important is the second point: mathematics is a way of thinking.
"Mathematics is the most basic of all sciences. It's almost pure logic. One of the reasons we're seeing such an increase in mathematics teaching and learning is because this kind of logic, this kind of thinking, is looming as a necessity in the future."
For instance, business is using sophisticated mathematics to solve
problems that at one time weren't even considered. Here's one:
You're an inventory manager for a nationwide firm that stores and ships corn flakes from 300 warehouses scattered across the country. Your problem is to figure out how many boxes of corn flakes to store in each warehouse to supply the market in that area, and to determine from which warehouse to ship corn flakes to which city.
WITH ONLY ONE or two warehouses and a basic knowledge of freight rates, the solution is easy. But with 300 warehouses and thousands of customers, it gets complicated.
To solve your problem, mathematics has come up with something called "linear programming." It's a formula for lining up the known quantities of a problem and fitting them into an equation. Modern business uses the system in hundreds of ways every day.
Here's another problem:
in your warehouses, and that buying it ties up some of your cash until the bolt is put in the set and the set is sold. There's another expense in buying bolts, too. It's the cost of paperwork for frequent re-ordering.
You're a television set manufacturer, and you know that buying a certain size of bolt for the set costs a certain amount. You also know that it costs extra to store the bolt
Now then, how do you figure out when to re-order bolts at least cost and maximum efficiency?
MATHEMATICS DOES this job, too. Manufacturers have found this mathematical tool particularly valuable in maintaining inventories of thousands of varwing parts.
These are some of the "applied" ways in which mathematics is useful. They demonstrate the tremendous increase in mathematical knowledge that has come from research, particularly since World War II.
But Prof. Adams and his colleagues at KU also make a case for the other great service of mathematics. This is its usefulness in "teaching people to think."
They see the value of this service repeated again and again as enrollments in mathematics courses continue to increase. Last fall, there were 3,700 enrollments in math courses among the 12,344 students on the Lawrence campus. The mathematics department uses about eight
per cent of all the classrooms on the campus.
Mathematics teaching and research has grown enormously at the University. There are 168 undergraduate majoring in mathematics, and 110 students working toward advanced degrees in mathematics if the Graduate School. This is up from 97 undergraduates and 136 graduate students in 1962. In 1954 there were about 20 graduate students and 20 undergraduate. There are now eight times as many majors in mathematics and five times as many graduates
A SENIOR STAFF of 29 and a junior staff of 51 part-time graduate students is directed by Prof. G. Baley Price. Under Dr. Price, mathematics has become one of the largest departments on the campus.
When a student sets to work on a mathematics problem in a classroom, he is putting his mind to the task of logic. Mathematics is removed from nature. Its forms and functions have little, if anything, to do with everyday life. A person's beliefs, his assumptions, his emotions and prejudices, have no place in mathematics. Prof. Adams smiled when he spoke
"Some people may have thought
Prof. Adams smiled when he spoke of computers.
Area Park Directors Go to School
Recreation and park directors for a 12 state area are attending the Midwest Recreation Executives School this week in the Kansas Union.
The school which is held annually at KU is co-sponsored by the National Recreation Association, the Midwest and Southwest District Advisory Committees and KU.
Representing the physical education and recreation department of KU is Larry J. Heeb, assistant professor of physical education, and Robert M. Nelson, University Extension.
The sessions opened Sunday night and will close at 3 p.m. Friday.
SPEAKERS INCLUDE Charles E. Doell, superintendent emeritus of the Minneapolis Park Board and now visiting professor at Texas Tech and Michigan State University, and Ralph McClintock, superintendent of parks and recreation at Omaha, Neb. They will speak on "Elements of Park and Recreation Management."
Marston McCluggage, professor of human relations, will present a course entitled "A Wav of Looking at People and Organizations." Lyle Beaver, Central Missouri State College, Warrensburg, will speak on "Creative Programming in the Out-of-Door."
Calder M. Pickett, professor of
journalism, is coordinating sessions on public information and relations. Others speaking in this field are Perry Riddle, Topeka Daily Capital-Journal; Jack Zimmerman, Lawrence Journal-World; Darrell W. Holt, assistant professor of speech and dramatics; and Richard Hunter, managing editor of the Midwest Bottler, a publication from Kansas City.
that mathematicians would be put out of business by computers. The surprising thing is computers have created far more jobs for mathematicians than ever existed before; computers have caused tremendous expansion in at least two fields within mathematics."
ONE OF THESE fields is "numerical analysis" the science of explaining to a computer the easiest way for it to solve a problem. It isn't easy to communicate with a machine that can do only three things: add, subtract, and distinguish whether a number is greater or less than zero.
The second of these computer-related mathematical specialties is the development of computer "languages" or programs. Because a computer can only add or subtract, special symbols and formulas have to be devised and put into "programs" to enable it to solve problems in such diverse fields as sociology, physics, chemistry, and business.
Kansas representatives are from Lawrence, Hutchinson, Wichita, Topeka, and Parsons. Other states represented are Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas. Also four managers of the Kansas State Park and Resources Authority are attending.
These symbols result in special computer languages which have such strange-sounding names as Fortran and AlgoL. Again, the special training of the mathematician enables him to construct these languages and to analyze them for clearness and conciseness.
MATHEMATICS chairman Price and his staff have attracted considerable amounts of mathematics research support to Kansas. During the past year, the KU department of mathematics received $296,000 from the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research.
One of the largest research projects is headed by Prof. Nachman Aronszajn, Summerfield Distinguished Professor. Working with him are six other senior staff members in a study of "functional analysis." Functional analysis deals with modern methods of solving differential equations and other problems in the study of natural phenomena.
THE CLASSICAL FILM SERIES
FEB.10 METROPOLIS (germany) 1926
FEB.17 - YOJIMBO (japan) 1961
FEB. 24—LITTLE CEASAR (U.S.A.) 1930
MAR.31-DAY OF WRATH (denmark) 1943
MAR.3- KANAL (poland) 1956
MAR.10 THE BIG SLEEP (U.S.A.) 1946
MAR.17—LE MILLION (france) 1931
APR.14 THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS (U.S.A.)
MAR. 24 THIS STRANGE PASSION (mexico)1953
APR.21 CHRONICLE of a SUMMER (france) 1961
APR.28 AN EVENING WITH CHARLIE CHAPLIN
MAY 5—BROKEN BLOSSOMS (U.S.A.)1919
MAY 12 MOONA (U.S.A.) 1926
SINGLE ADMISSION 60c
FRASER THEATER
SEASON TICKETS $5.00
NOW ON SALE AT THE KANSAS UNION-SAVE $2.80