Post by Peter MoylanPost by Steve HayesAt the end of the 12th year came the Matriculation (university
entrance) examination, where all four disciplines were part of
"Mathematics" (with an s). There were four 3-hour exam papers, one in
each discipline, but the final mark, shown on the certificate, was
the mean of all four papers. So Arthmetic was definitely seen as a
branch of Mathematics.
In my matriculation year I did two mathematics subjects. I think they
were called Pure Mathematics and Applied Mathematics. The syllabus was
probably set at Melbourne University, where they had two separate
departments with those names. As I recall it, applied mathematics there
was the mathematics relevant to physics, and pure mathematics included
most topics relevant to engineering.
Years later, I was collaborating with a senior member of the mathematics
department at the University of Newcastle, to see whether we could work
out a second year "mathematics for electrical engineers" syllabus. We
started with a list of all second year mathematics topics, and then he
started deleting the "useless" topics. I had to stop him. It turned
out that every topic that I regarded as "essential for EE", he regarded
as "no practical applications". He was amazed when I told him how we
used those "useless" subjects.
When I was first at Birmingham (from 1970) elementary mathematics was
taught to biochemistry students by someone from the mathematics
department. Some of us thought that that was unsatisfactory, and after
a struggle a colleague and I persuaded the department to let him and me
do it.
On a somewhat different point, in 1981 I published a book called Basic
Mathematics for Biochemists. It was reviewed in Nature, by Keith
Dalziel as it happens, the same chappy we were talking about yesterday.
He said it was OK as far as it went, but it was far too elementary for
his students. 17 years later I raised the possibility of a 2nd edition
with Oxford University Press. They had the proposal reviewed by four
experts, all of whom said, without exception, that the 1st edition was
too advanced for modern students. They wanted things like fractions to
be covered. I don't suppose the level of basic education has improved
since. My daughter, then 16, found it far too simple, but at that time
France still ranked with Russia as a country where mathematics was
properly taught. Today France is probably no better than England.
--
Athel -- French and British, living in Marseilles for 37 years; mainly
in England until 1987.