The Mathematical Tree of Knowledge

WILLIAM E. EKMAN* The mandate from the selection committee was to present a ' 'non-technical lecture on some phase of liberal education'' in which I should relate part or all of my own subject matter field to the whole concept of the liberal arts. In searching for a topic I was reminded of a picture which I saw in the Hall of Science at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1933. It was a "Tree of Knowledge" with mathematics furnishing the central root and trunk. It thus supplied the important energy for the basic sciences such as astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology, and physics and, together with these, furnished support for the applied sciences, engineering of various kinds, and the social sciences. Historically, the main problems of astronomy were solved by mathematics, but astronomy now uses the techniques of all of the sciences as we shall see later. But since I am of the "old school," mathematics and astronomy are inseparably linked in my mind and I shall discuss much astronomy in this lecture. The fact that mathematics is so important is not surprising. The contributions which it has made to the other great fields of knowledge and its influence in world affairs cannot be ignored. This does not mean that everyone should be trained as a mathematician, but it does mean that he should know a reasonable amount and also how to use itand perhaps, if a parent, to be able to help with ' 'homework.'' If you have a child in school you may be beginning to feel the impact of a change in mathematics, which has been called the "Mathematics Revolution." The beginning in this nationwide attack on old-fashioned mathematics was started in 1955 when a commission appointed by the College Entrance Examination Board met to discuss a

revision of the high school mathematics curriculum. The general feeling of the commission members was that the standard curriculum was outmoded and that it was based on a static concept of mathematics. The introduction of the " n e w " mathematics into the grades and high school came about as a direct result of this and other widespread studies of the mathematics programs. The studies were brought about by important social and economic changes and these changes have been like a chain reaction caused by the technological and scientific advances of our times. The " n e w " mathematics is not new in the sense that it presents only new concepts in the field of mathematics. The language and theory of sets was developed and presented in the 19th century. A great deal of the modern mathematics can be found in textbooks dating back a hundred years or more. What then is new about the mathematics being introduced? First, the emphasis is now on meaning rather than on memorization. Concepts are presented in a meaningful manner, with generalizations growing out of example, exploration, and discovery. Memorization or rote learning, when it does occur, follows meaning. Second, pupils in the elementary grades are taught bodies of knowledge in the field of mathematics that were formerly reserved for the junior or senior high school. Reaching as it does as far down as grade school, the " n e w " mathematics apparently fascinates pupils, challenges teachers, confuses parents; and its introduction has been nationwide. No modern mathematician can afford not to become familiar with Nicolas Bourbaki. The name disguises a large group of outstanding mathematicians, originally French, who have managed to keep their exact membership secret. The Bourbakians continue to merge their identity into one super-mathematician. Since 1939 Bourbaki has greatly influenced both teaching and research, and has been largely responsible for the " n e w " mathematics. The scope of their project is to integrate the whole of mathematics into a single framework, which appears periodically in their treatises, Elements of Mathematics. Not every mathematician approves of their influence. Professor Morris Kline, New York University, for one, deplores the widespread revamping of elementary mathematics along Bourbakian lines at the expense of traditional mathematics. The "new math" has produced considerable change in the content of conventional school mathematics. With the present availability of adding machines, desk calculators, and automatic computers, it is unreasonable to spend as much time on arithmetic as used to be spent.

Also, the knowledge of many proofs in geometry is not as useful as knowledge about mathematical systems in general. It is too soon to evaluate the new mathematics for it takes many years to test in practice any new system. A great deal of learning depends on the teacher and how well he teaches. As you who are teachers know well, there is a great variation in pupils. With the development of new programs in mathematics, School Mathematics Study Group (SMSG), University of Illinois Committee on School Mathematics (UICSM), and others, and the new curriculum guides adopted in many states conforming to the recommendations of the Committee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics (CUPM), teachers must take a fresh look at the entire subject and become acquainted with a different terminology. Teachers and parents alike should become familiar with modern mathematics and be aware that in spite of the " n e w " mathematics the " o l d " arithmetic is still with us. Pure mathematics is abstract. In the often-quoted words of Bertrand Russell, "Pure mathematics consist entirely of assertion to the effect that, if such and such a proposition is true of anything, then such and such another proposition is true of that thing. It is essential not to discuss whether the first proposition is really true, and not to mention what the anything is, of which it is supposed to be true . . . . Thus mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true." x Some mathematicians and teachers argue from this, that we should keep pictures and physical apparatus out of the classroom, that they obscure the real nature of mathematics. The student should learn to think abstractly as soon as possible. What is mathematics then? Let us answer this question by examining what mathematicians do. In the ' 'Mathematical Reviews,'' a publication which exists solely for the purpose of giving short reviews of mathematical books or papers, several hundred books and papers are reviewed each month. The table of contents is very extensive and shows the activities of present day mathematicians. Some of the subject headings are Astronomy, History and Biography, Foundations and Logic, Algebra, Probability and Statistics, Theory of Numbers, Analysis, Topology, Geometry, Numerical and Graphical Methods,

Relativity, Mechanics, and Mathematical Physics. The books and papers reviewed are in every language in which scientific journals are published. It has been estimated that more has happened in the world of mathematics in the last 50 years than occurred throughout the preceding 2,000 years. In former years the principal way for a mathematician to support himself and his family was by being a teacher. This is no longer the case. The need for teachers of mathematics is far from filled but there is also a real and growing demand for mathematically trained personnel in government and industry. Many of us can well remember when a firm tradition decreed that college mathematics should consist of the sequence: college algebra. trigonometry, analytic geometry, differential and integral calculus. differential equations, theory of equations, and advanced calculus. That old structure which comfortably regulated college mathematics has fallen apart, and in the wake of the breakup there is much confusion about what college departments should be doing. The mathematics department of our university offers both the B.A. and M.A. degrees. Students of exceptional ability are recognized and encouraged. For example, each semester certain freshmen with sufficient background are encouraged to begin their college mathematics with the calculus. In recognition of the increasing demand for personnel trained in digital computation, courses in this field have recently been added to the curriculum, so that a student can major in the area of computer science. The revolution in school mathematics has enabled a student who has superior ability and up-to-date high school training to move ahead by the time he enters college. Not only is there a spread of capabilities among incoming students but there are now more kinds of mathematical knowledge which they seek. This was brought about by the computer, and the increasing use of mathematics in the biological, management, and social sciences, by the growth of space science, and by the emphasis on such subjects as probability and statistics, logic, operator theory, and analysis in the various fields of science and engineering. Then there is the explosive increase in the number of students who wish to major in mathematics and expect to earn a living from it. Moreover, colleges are expected to train many more teachers for the "new mathematics." Soon after World War II the number of mathematics majors graduating from college in any one year was less than those in either chemistry or geology. According to a recent study

by C. B. Lindquist,2 the number of mathematics majors in 1955 was 4,034 compared with 11,202 in all other physical sciences combined. By Lindquist's projections, the number of mathematics majors should reach 39,000 by 1970 as compared with 29,000 in all other physical sciences. In addition to the students majoring in mathematics many others must study the subject as a "service course" for physics, chemistry, and other physical sciences and also the social sciences. Mathematics enters into all phases of human experience. Many ancient and modern works of art were executed using the principles of mathematics, especially those of geometry. Note the pyramids, the Greek temples, the Mayan and Aztec monuments, and the works of Leonardo de Vinci whose drawings in perspective show the most rigorous applications of projective geometry. Music has a physical and mathematical basis, although the talented composers and performers perhaps are not always aware of the implications. There is more than meets the ear! Melody, harmony, rhythms, harmonics, all can be analyzed by mathematical methods. This analysis is not new; in fact it was first attempted by Pythagoras as early as 500 B.C. The recording and transmission of music by electronic means to retain true fidelity is done under the most rigorous mathematical principles. Of course, there are exceptions to all general rules. Those of us who are inclined to be old-fashioned and traditional in our musical tastes sometimes wonder what happened to the rules and principles of musical composition when we listen to some of the "far out" stuff which is supposed to pass for music these days! But perhaps the rules have changed. What does this upsurge in the importance of mathematics, both pure and applied, mean to the teacher of mathematics? Knowledge is not really assimilated unless it is used. For this reason, the application of mathematics is of importance as well as its theory, and teachers should teach both. Another, and a serious implication for the teachers of mathematics and administrators in the United States, is the result of a recent international testing program conducted by a reputable government agency. Twelve advanced nations of Europe, Asia, and North America acknowledged to have the most effective school

systems participated in the survey which tested the student's comprehension of mathematical concepts and ability to solve problems. Although the data need more analysis, they tend to show the United States number eleven and Japan number one. The Soviet Union was well above us. Another influence affecting the non-mathematician is the automatic computer, or "electronic brain," as many people call it. In 1944 the first of the automatic digital computers was finished. Today with approximately 80 per cent of the world's 50,000 computer systems, the United States has so great a manpower shortage of personnel capable and able to use them that only one in four jobs needed to make efficient use of computers can be filled. Automatic computers are solving problems and answering questions on a scale so vast it is difficult to imagine. This computing power is devoted to problems of business, industry, and government as well as scientific, engineering and military problems. An inventory of the kinds of applications, made by the magazine, Computers and Automation, in June, 1965, showed over 800 distinct areas of application. Those of us who take Arabic numerals in stride today will be taking computers in stride tomorrow. Man's flight through life is guided by the power of his knowledge. It has been estimated that it took 5,000 years to progress from the sail to steam, 130 years from steam to gas and electricity, 40 years from gas and electricity to the atomic age, 12 years from the atomic age to the space age. Note that the time span decreases as progress increases. What will the next few years produce in the relativity of time? What is in store for the future? How tremendously the tree of knowledge has grown and changed during our own life span! Today we are pushing outward into space, planning trips to the moon, preparing for the moment when man will not just inhabit one planet but many. What is our universe really like? Is it limitless? Timeless? What are the possibilities of intelligent life on other planets? Man has invented various ways through which he views the universe and speculates upon his own place in it, and through which he tries to increase his knowledge and his understanding of both the universe and himself. The restless search for meaning has led him, through generations, to create the fields of knowledge which we conveniently group into categories of the humanities, the natural sciences including mathematics, and the social sciences. It is interesting and instructive to consider when man had no clock and no calendar by which to regulate his daily life. In those days there

were no ' 'great white ways." He depended upon the moon and stars to light his pathway at night. With the naked eye, primitive man saw a few thousand stars that appeared to be fixed on a stationary globe, the blue sky. He recognized seven heavenly bodies that were not fixed but appeared to move among the stars. These were the sun, moon, and the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. He immortalized these seven bodies by adopting the week of seven days and naming each in honor of the diety that ruled that day; and so we work six days and supposedly rest on the seventh. In the field of stellar astronomy and the astronomy of space, the most exciting discoveries have been of the quasi-stellar radio and nonradio sources (quasars). Marten Schmidt has said that the quasar 3C273 could be (10 1 0 ) 10,000,000,000 light years distant and traveling at 83 per cent the speed of light. The quasars include the most distant objects ever observed. This new discovery will have an important bearing on the theories of the nature and age of the universe. The future of astronomy is bright and challenging. A great step forward was taken in the study of astronomy with the launching of Sputnik in 1957, the first artificial satellite. When artificial satellites were sent into space, observations from outside the earth's atmospheric screen became possible for the first time. It was in 1961 that a man was first sent into orbit around the earth. Most of the earth satellites are equipped with instruments for particular problems. For the study of space science, the astronomers need to borrow from many sources. Fred Hoyle has stated that today an astro-physicist must be a philosopher as well as a scientist. The old idea of an astronomer was a bearded man, wearing a skullcap and peering through a telescope, but he is much more than that today. Mathematics is needed for the study of orbits, the motion of all kinds of celestial bodies, and the system of coordinates used for locations in space. Physics and chemistry are necessary to study the composition of space particles and the knowledge of atoms and their behavior. Physiology will become important as astronauts are launched into space and are landed on the moon or on the planets. Electronic computers must be used to do the high-speed calculations necessary to determine the orbits of the space vehicles and keep them under constant control. Thus it is becoming obvious that all branches of science are to be used in the study of space and the possibility of life existing in other parts of the universe. The study of space science is inexhaustible, and man's curiosity is never satisfied. There is still a great deal to learn about everything in what seems to be an infinite universe.

The future needs research workers and teachers. In astronomy as in other sciences, the search for knowledge is never finished. NASA reports that there is more information coming from satellites than there are analysts to work with it. Projects like the International Geophysical Year will be carried out again and again as man pushes forward for a better understanding of his universe. Cosmology, the study of the design and extent of the universe, has developed rapidly. The galaxies are found to be nearly uniformly scattered through the universe. They were found to be moving away from us and from each other. During the 1920's the theory of the expanding universe was a popular astronomical subject. Our galaxy was placed in a small group of galaxies. The location of the center of this expanding universe was, and is still, unknown. At the present time, our attention is turning toward the theories of evolution of the galaxies and of the universe, and the possibility of life outside our own solar system. Space explorations, the Mariner Satellite series, have almost ruled out any possibility of life on Venus and Mars, which were once thought to be the most likely planets capable of supporting life. We are waiting for the time to come when we can leave our earth, land on the moon and on Mars, and even send expeditions to stars beyond our solar system. But even at the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second, it would take a space ship more than four years to reach the nearest star. At our present attainable speeds, the time of flight would be impossible. Observational discoveries and new theories in all branches of astronomy are progressing. Are we alone in the universe? This question embodies the most recent revolution in astronomy. Some scientists are thinking in terms of communication from outside the earth but so far no contact has been made. The fascinating possibility that intelligent life exists on many more planets than the earth and the outside chance of communicating with these beings was discussed at the closing sessions of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in December, 1967. On incredibly distant and invisible planets highly advanced civilizations could be broadcasting messages that they exist. Perhaps many questions about the state of matter and the possibility of life outside the solar system will be answered in our time. Who knows? After these many years since I was so severely reprimanded in the American Astrology Magazine for having said that the astrologers did not keep up to date, and that they were "cheerful frauds," I see that the computers have made an impact. Now the electronic computer,

latest wonder of science, has gone to work for astrology! "A way has been found to computerize your daily horoscope from your actual birthday and not merely from your zodiac signs. Now, to obtain your own day-by-day horoscopeturned out just for you by the "electronic brain"for a full month, mail one dollar with your full name, your address and actual birthdate to ASTROCOMP PROJECTIONS. If you are not delighted your $1 will be refunded and you keep the full month's horoscope." Astrology is some 2,000 years out of date, and the horoscope readings, although claimed by astrologers to be meaningful, have only historical significance. Pseudo-science dies slowly! The universe as we picture it is a system of billions of galaxies. Each galaxy is a system of billions of stars, and each star is a sun, a whirl of atoms in motion. One of these galaxies is the Milky Way, shaped like a huge wheel, and somewhat toward the outer rim is a medium sized star, yellow with age and of moderate temperatureour sun. The sun is spinning a dizzy course to the outer rim of the Milky Way, at 12 miles a second, taking the earth and all the other planets with it, and at the same time as the galaxy itself rotates the solar system is traveling in a large arc at about 200 miles a second. From this shifting, whirling, "firm" earth among the stars, man has come to view in detail the cosmos and to inquire of what and how the universe is made. The greatest wonder is not the atoms, the stars, the galaxies, but the mind of man which has discovered the mysteries and gained knowledge of the universe as a whole which includes man. The pictorial view of the universe continually changes. Everything is as it was, never as it is. We see the sun as it was eight minutes ago, the star Sirus as it was nine years ago, the group of stars called the Pleiades as they were five hundred years ago. In the constellation Andromeda we can observe on a clear moonless night in winter with the naked eye a spiral nebula, one of our nearer outer galaxies at a distance of some 800,000 light years. It appears to us as it was 800,000 years ago. What has happened since then to its uncounted stars and systems? With powerful telescopes, by radio-astronomy and on photographic plates, we search hundreds of millions of years into the past of the universewhich shows the relative emptiness of space. Today there seems a remote chance of finding an answer to the age-old question: Are we the only human beings in this incredibly vast universe. If so, what does their existence mean to man as he wonders about his own significance and ponders the will of God? With the universe expanding in every direction the mind of man is "naturally

led to speculative meditation," as Harlow Shapley puts it. It is amazing how little we know compared with what we can conceive as ultimately within our reach. What is the universe? How does it work? Why is the universe? What is the source of the energy which started our universe in motion? Must we revise our consideration of mankind as a world being and place him in the universe instead? The following quotations lead to questions which have been posed by philosophers and poets for thousands of years: " I n the beginning . . . " "From everlasting to everlasting . . . " "When I look at the moon and the stars and the work of Thy fingers, what is man that Thou art mindful of h i m ? " Let us consider some words which have recently been added to our language which seem to be too ambitious in their connotation, to say the least . . . "Astronaut," and "Cosmonaut." We have lifted our manned satellites only a few hundred miles from the surface of the earth and this distance is indeed minute when compared with the distances to even the nearest star or when compared with the known dimensions of the universe. We note that the number of stars within our scientific knowledge is not the five or six thousand naked-eye objects of the ancient Hindus or Greeks, not the million stars revealed by the small telescopes in the days of Galileo and Newton, nor the few billions of a generation ago. The number of stars in today's surveys is more than ten to the twentieth powera hundred thousand million billionand each star radiates the fuel for life to whatever planets go along in the journey through the depths of space and the eons of time. I am asked often about "Flying Saucers." According to a recent Gallup poll, more than 5 million Americans are certain that they have seen flying saucers or other unidentified flying objects (UFO's), and more than 45 per cent of the American adults believe they are real. An Air Force unit called Project Blue Book has logged and evaluated over 11,000 sightings, and in most cases the investigators finally identified the UFO's as aircraft, balloons, satellites, flocks of birds, reflected lights, atmospheric phenomena, meteors, planets and northern lights. About 5 per cent of the saucer reports are listed as unexplained. Physicist Edwards Condon, former director of the National Bureau of Standards, agreed to head an Air Force team at the University of Colorado to attempt to evaluate some of the unidentified cases. UFO's are not new, for evidence has been found of many ancient sightings. For example, saucer advocates read sighting into Shakespeare's King Henry VI ("Dazzle mine eyes, or do I see three suns") and in the

Bible where Ezekial describes a strange craft coming from the sky and landing near the river Chebar in Chaldea. If one accepts the possibility of spacecraft or vehicles from outer space, one must assume the existence in the universe of a human race more intelligent than man, which is not too difficult to believe. The earth is merely a minor planet orbiting around one of the 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, which in turn is only an average member of a universe that may itself contain 100 billion galaxies. In the book Intelligent Life in the Universe, the authors Shklovsky and Sagan, estimate that in the Milky Way alone there may be as many as a million planets inhabited by advanced civilizations. Yet distances between stars are so vastthe Milky Way is 100,000 light years acrossthat these civilizations may be separated from one another by 300 to 1,000 light years. Presumably no spaceshipor any matter can travel faster than the velocity of light according to the Einstein theory of relativity. Consider the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, which is 4.3 light-years distant; at the speed of 17,500 miles per hour that astronauts travel, it would take nearly 170,000 years to reach this star. The most telling argument against the reality of UFO's is that no proven physical evidence or hardware has ever been found to support the saucers' evidence. And although astronomers photograph the sky continuously, no UFO has ever left an image on their photographic plates. However, many scientists favor the continuation of UFO investigations in the hope of obtaining new discoveries while clearing up the uncertainty about flying saucers. Man's idea about his own importance in the universe have undergone quite a change since he first began to take note of his surroundings. When one goes out of doors on a clear moonless night and his attention is attracted to the wonderful work of his Creator, as exhibited in the sky, surely he cannot feel that this gigantic universe, with its billions of stars and solar systems, was constructed and is being maintained solely for the benefit of the inhabitants of this little earth which is an insignificant part of the whole. Who can study the science of astronomy and think about the starlit heavens with a knowledge of the dimensions of the celestial bodies, their movements and tremendous distances, without considering the Power that brought the universe into being? What is man's religion? Does it not depend upon his outlook on the universe? In fact, if the author of the Book of Job was not an expert astronomer of his day, he

at least knew much more about the subject than the average person gives him credit for knowing. Buried within the pages of the Book are many hidden astronomical truths. The study of science gives a man a magnificent conception of his universe, which is changing as his knowledge increases. His universe continues to expand, and he envisions a Creator with power and wisdom to guide and direct the marvelous universe which science has revealed in the twentieth centuryas the tree of knowledge grows.