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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
sciences, both as giving practice in the application of the 
various theories, and as affording tests of ability to comprehend 
as well as to apply that which has been learned/ 
It must be remembered, however, that even among ad- 
vanced and professed mathematicians, the faculty of solving 
problems is verjr unequally distributed ; a fact which is openly 
recognized at the great mathematical University of Cambridge. 
The problems themselves are often open to comment, as par- 
taking of the nature of enigmas, or riddles, rather than as fair 
tests of knowledge. Like riddles, moreover, they exercise a 
kind of fascination on their concoctors, and are very liable to 
figure in papers of questions. The writer, for instance, has 
seen in a paper on Physics a question which involved an inde- 
terminate equation, and of which the solutions were infinite in 
number. Surely this should have been relegated to its kindred 
Algebra. But an instance which has occurred within the pre- 
sent year is so exceptional as to deserve quotation. It was a 
Pass, not an Honours paper, set for Matriculation, — the primary 
and initial step of the whole University career ; a gate to further 
knowledge, which should be prudently left as wide open as is 
consistent with a reasonably high standard. The paper con- 
sisted in all of sixteen questions, and is therefore too long for 
quotation in full. Of these, says the heading, — 
‘ Not more than Eight Questions are to be answered , of which at 
least Two must be selected from Section A. 
A. 
4 1. State your reason for regarding a pound as a unit of 
mass and not of force. What is the most convenient unit 
of force when a foot, a pound, and a second are units of length, 
mass, and time, respectively ? 
‘ 2. State the conditions necessary for the equilibrium of a 
body free to move in one plane. To what do these conditions 
reduce when one point in the body is fixed ? 
‘ 3. A solid right circular cone of homogeneous iron is 64 
inches in height, and its mass is 8192 lbs. The cone is cut by 
a plane perpendicular to the axis so that the mass of the small 
cone removed is 686 lbs. Find the height of the centre of 
gravity of the truncated portion remaining, above the base of 
the cone. 
4 4. A heavy body starting from rest slides down a smooth 
plane inclined 30° to the horizon. How many seconds will it 
occupy in sliding 240 feet down the plane, and what will be 
its velocity after traversing this distance P [g = 32.] 
1 5. What is the “ Kinetic Energy ” of a moving mechanical 
system? A shot of 1000 lbs. moving at 1600 feet per second 
