CORRESPONDENCE MATHEMATICAL PROBLEM PAGE
highly specialized character, and because they are recorded in journals and monographs not read by the To the Editor rank and file of chemists. Articles calling attention DEARSIR: to these developments and explaining them in readable Let me be one of the first to applaud the new Mathe- language would be most helpful in your JOURNAL. matical Problem Page. I t will do much to stimulate One of the best articles of this type that I have read actual work in mathematical problems, and that is is that on "Cosmic Rays" by Stern in your January much needed. That there is latent interest in mathe- issue. It tells just what the layman wants to knowmatical subjects was forcibly illustrated a t the In- what experiments have been made and by whom, what dianapolis meeting of the American Chemical Society, the significance of each is, and how the subject stands when it was necessary to hold a symposium on "Mathe- to date. For further good examples of what can be matics in the Service of Chemistry" in a large ballroom. done in this way, I refer you to what our neighbors, The writer attended that symposium and could not the physicists, are giving in the "Physics Forum" of help wondering what percentage of the large audience the new R&ew of Scienti$c Instruments. In fact, I could really follow Dushman, Urey, and others in believe that your JOURNAL is in many respects the their expositions of the new quantum mechanics. chemical counterpart of that Rm'ew, and might well There is something about mathematics that has a consciously perform some of the same functions. mystic appeal, that suggests enormous intellectual Very truly yours, 2330-A S. COMPT~N AVE. power (witness the popular worship of Einstein), and STANLEY C. MOULTON ST. Lours, MISSOURI this interest should be brought to earth and made to work. Your new page will do much toward that end, and will incidentally furnish chemists with a profitable THE DISCOVERY OF THE ELEMENTS. pastimegood substitute for jig-saw puzzles. I should like to offer a suggestion regarding the XX. CORRECTIONS problems that are to be presented. It does not seem To the Editor to me that the current selection will do much to teach n - . . . "-. "Urn DLK: the uninitiated the usefulness of mathematics in Mr. F. D. Martin of Purdue University has kindly chemistry, and that should he a chief purpose of the pointed out an error which appeared in Part XX of page. For the simpler problems, I suggest that exthe series of articles on "The Discovery of the Elements" amples more definitely chemical should be given [J. CHEM. EDUC.,10, 167 (Mar., 1933)l. The second As.an example, I give one below, quoted from Hitchcock and Robinson's "Differential Equations in Ap- sentence under the sub-title "VIRGINIUM (ELEMENT 87)" should read: ". . . and since no inactive isotopes plied Chemistry," p. 16: of elements having atomic numbers greater than 83 The air in a recently used classroom 30' X 30' X 12' tested had ever been found. . ." 0.12% by volume of CO1. How many cubic feet of fresh air Dr. N. M. Stover of the University of Alberta has must be admitted per minute in order that ten minutes later it shall contain not over 0.06%? (Fresh air contains 0.0470 also kindly informed me of a discrepancy regarding CO*.) Assume immediate mixing of fresh with stale air. the date of discoverv of rhenium and masurium., on. (Answer: 1500 cu. ft approx ) 161 and 163 of the arch issue, and the date of publiI t might be well, in such a problem, to give a hint cation of the original paper by Noddack, Tacke, and as to the type of differential equation that should be Berg [ref. (15)l. The statement that elements 43 and set up. This would prevent giving up the problem in 75 "were discovered in June, 1924 . . . " should be discouragement and would also suggest how certain corrected to read: " . . . were announced in June, mathematical methods could be applied to very prac- 1925. . . . " The same change should also be made in tical problems. If it be objected that such problems the Chronology, p. 227 of the April issue. can be found in the books, I reply that the MatheSome readers may have been disappointed a t the matical Problem Page exists to interest those not absence of several portraits which would have made inclined to hunt up the books or not possessing the an appropriate addition to these articles. Although Dr. Dains and the writer would have liked to publish knowledge as to where to hunt. I do not know whether the article on "The Solu- portraits of all the chemists whose researches have led bility Law," p. 234, was a part of your mathematical to the discovery of chemical elements, some of these program, but to me it illustrated a type of article were unobtainable. Since the discoverers of some of that is very much needed. I t explains in simple the newer elements preferred not to have their porlanguage the development of an important principle traits published, we of course respected their wishes and the application of the necessary mathematics. even though we had the portraits. Sincerely Yours, Many somewhat mathematical developments in our TREu m v ~ n s m oa KANSAS KANSAS MARYELVIRAWEEKS science are unappreciated by many because of their LAWRENCE, 314 .l
