July 17, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



69 



attended that the sections have held for 

 many years, the interest never seemed to 

 flag and, while no wonderful contributions 

 were made to scientific knowledge, every 

 one went away feeling either that he had 

 gained much information as to the other 

 man's point of view concerning scien- 

 tifically instructing engineering students in 

 mathematics and of the wishes and needs 

 of the engineering instructor, or that he 

 appreciated more the quality of work that 

 was now being done by teachers of mathe- 

 matics in engineering colleges. 



Wm. T. Mageudee, 

 Secretary, Section D 



PRESENT CONDITION OF MATHEMATICAL 



INSTRUCTION FOR ENGINEERS IN 



AMERICAN COLLEGES "^ 



OuE country has witnessed in recent 

 years a most marvelous industrial expan- 

 sion and development. Along with this 

 movement has come a rapidly increasing 

 demand for trained men, equipped with all 

 that science can contribute, to direct and 

 carry forward this development of our 

 natural resources and our industrial power. 

 In meeting this demand our technical 

 schools have experienced a remarkable 

 growth, and not a little of the educational 

 thought and activity of the country is 

 being directed toward the problems con- 

 nected with technical instruction. Well- 

 equipped engineering schools have grown 

 up in the larger centers of population and 

 most of the larger state universities now 

 include strong engineering departments. 

 Mathematics is so fundamental to all of 

 this work, and so large a proportion of the 

 students now receiving mathematical in- 

 struction in this country anticipate making 



' Opening address before the joint meeting of 

 Sections A and D of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science with the Chicago 

 Section of the American Mathematical Society 

 for the discussion of the topic " Mathematical 

 Training for Engineers." 



use of it later in connection with engineer- 

 ing work, that it has been thought best by 

 the Chicago Section of the American 

 Mathematical Society to invite to a joint 

 discussion of the "Mathematical Training 

 of Engineering Students," representatives 

 from some of the leading engineering 

 schools and some of those consulting engi- 

 neers whose wide experience has brought 

 them into contact with demands of actual 

 practise. 



That we may all know what the actual 

 conditions are with respect to this instruc- 

 tion and consequently have some common 

 basis for our discussion and our conclu- 

 sions, I have been asked to present a state- 

 ment of the work in mathematics which 

 is now being given to engineering students. 



As the basis of our consideration, I have 

 selected seventeen institutions where engi- 

 neering work is an important feature. Of 

 these, eight give their attention largely or 

 exclusively to technical work, and the re- 

 maining institutions have strong engineer- 

 ing departments; so that the mathematical 

 work given in these institutions may be 

 said to fairly represent the preparation in 

 this subject for engineering students in 

 American institutions. 



The three most important factors enter- 

 ing into the consideration of our topic are : 

 the entrance requirements, the require- 

 ments for graduation, and the qualifica- 

 tions of the instructional force. 



As will be seen from Table I., all of 

 these seventeen institutions require for 

 entrance algebra through quadratics, to- 

 gether with plane and solid geometry. 

 Five of the institutions require plane trig- 

 onometry, while at several others it may be 

 counted for entrance if the student so 

 elects. It will be observed that four insti- 

 tutions require elementary algebra through 

 progressions, four require the subject of 

 logarithms, and two, Sheffield and Cornell, 

 require the whole of college algebra. 



