July 17, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



73 



Algebra 



Plane Trigo- 

 nometry 



Spherical Trig- 

 onometry 



Analytic Ge- 

 ometry 



65 



55 



55 



Calculus . 



Least squares.. 



Vector Anal- 

 ysis 



Projective Ge- 

 ometry 



Quaternions 



Differential 

 Equations 



60 

 10 



100 



r48 



iCE. 



(-34 

 \M.E. 



r4o 



iCE. 



/22 

 ICE. 



80 

 r58 

 ICE. 



108 

 r96 

 ICE. 



30 



no 



ICE. 



r45 



,E.E. 



72 

 [18] 



54 

 [18] 



54 

 [18] 



180 

 [72] 



[18] 



[18] 

 [18] 



{»} 



90 

 180 



rieo 



\CE. 



'32 

 CE. 



C E. = civil engineers, M. E. = mechanical engineers, E. E. = electrical engineers, [ ] = elective. 



* Massachusetts Institute of Technology now offers a course which combines the instruction in algebra, 

 analytic geometry and calculus rather than teaching these subjects as separate branches. In tables 

 II. and III., the distribution of time formerly given to these subjects is indicated as showing better 

 the relative emphasis placed upon each. 



taken into consideration. Tlie amount of 

 worli given in algebra ranges from fifteen 

 recitations at Stevens Institute, with an 

 entrance requirement of elementary alge- 

 bra through progressions, to ninety recita- 

 tions at Purdue with a requirement of ele- 

 mentary algebra through quadratics for 

 entrance. Likewise the work in plane tri- 

 gonometry ranges from thirty recitations 

 at the Massachusetts Institute to seventy at 

 Purdue. Analytic geometry and calculus 

 are naturally the most important subjects 

 for engineers in the mathematical curric- 

 ulum. One would naturally expect to 

 find a greater uniformity here. This, 

 however, is not the case. In analytic 

 geometry, it will be noticed that Armour 

 Institute requires but fifty-five recitations, 

 while the University of Minnesota gives 

 one hundred and ten recitations to the sub- 



ject. Again in calculus the work varies 

 from seventy recitations at Rensselaer to a 

 maximum of one hundred and eighty at 

 Missouri, Wisconsin and Rose. A word 

 should be said, perhaps, concerning the 

 number of recitations recorded ia the case 

 of Rensselaer. The department of mathe- 

 matics of that institution reports that the 

 recitations are from an hour and a quarter 

 to an hour and a half in length and that 

 the efSciency of the work is still further 

 increased by the fact that but two aca- 

 demic studies are carried simultaneously. 



It will be of interest also to compare the 

 total amount of time spent upon mathe- 

 matics at these various institutions. As 

 will be seen from Table III., this ranges 

 from one hundred and eighty recitations 

 at Cornell to three hundred and ninety-six 

 at Purdue. In making this comparison, 



