Mathematical Association

Review
Author(s): A. R. Pargeter
Review by: A. R. Pargeter
Source: The Mathematical Gazette, Vol. 50, No. 372 (May, 1966), pp. 231-232
Published by: Mathematical Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3612023
Accessed: 26-10-2015 22:59 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/
info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Mathematical Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Mathematical Gazette.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 192.236.36.29 on Mon, 26 Oct 2015 22:59:13 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 REVIEWS 231

rather unfortunate that the triangle shown is so nearly right-angled.

The printing is good, and the book is easy to read. A collection of
formulae and an alphabetic index at the end would have been useful.
G. A. GARREAU
90 Wyatt Park Road,
London, S.W. 2.

General Engineering Mathematics. By W. R. LAWSON. Pp. ix, 296.

18s. 1964. (Cassell)
As a result of the 1961 White Paper entitled " Better Opportunities
in Technical Education ", "General Engineering " courses have been
developed to cater for school leavers of fifteen and sixteen years of age
who show promise of being able to qualify as technicians. In some
technical colleges there are two-year " G " courses of mathematics for
school leavers who have completed a four-year secondary school course
in mathematics. The aim of this book is to cover the " G " course in
mathematics, starting with a revision of fractions and decimals and
ending with the solution of triangles by the sine and cosine rules.
Within these terms of reference, this book is excellent. It provides
numerous exercises of a straightforward type, which are calculated to
give the students confidence.
The only criticisms to be made are probably reflections of the
reviewer's prejudices. On page 39, the student is told " In the primary
school you were taught that 'twelve from seven won't go '. This was
because in the primary school you were not taught the whole of the
number scale. In fact there are as many numbers less than zero as there
are above." The first two sentences imply that we have a rigid system
of primary education, from which may we be preserved! The last
sentence is correct, but not in a sense the student can really appreciate
at this stage. If it starts a discussion, so much the better.
Chapter 4 on Indices makes the logical error of assuming that there
is a number-system which obeys the laws of indices even when these
indices are fractional or negative. Very few text-books at this level
are sound on this point.
For its purpose, this book can be confidently recommended. The
printing and binding are very good, especially considering the price.
G. A. GARREAU

The Cambridge Elementary Mathematical Tables. Compiled and.

arranged for the Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate by J. C. P.
MILLERand F. C. POWELL. Pp. 47. 1965. 2s. 6d. (Cambridge
University Press)
These tables are beautifully printed and arranged, and probably
represent the utmost in accuracy for tables of this size and price: in
fact, they simply bristle with devices and footnotes designed to minimize
error wherever the tables become " awkward ", and there is a 4-page

This content downloaded from 192.236.36.29 on Mon, 26 Oct 2015 22:59:13 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
232 THE MATHEMATICAL GAZETTE

preface on such matters. All this would, however, probably only confuse
the average schoolboy, who will continue to be served best by good old
straightforward Godfrey and Siddons (indeed some " modern " syllabuses
would abolish even mean differences and confine us to 3 figures), but
the good A-level student would certainly benefit from the scholarly
atmosphere of being satisfied with nothing but the best that emanates
from these pages. It is good too to see some brief, but at this level no
doubt adequate, statistical tables. Books of tables are hard-worked,
physically, and I should like to have seen the stiffish paper cover
reinforced with linen, even at the cost of another 6d.
A. R. PARGETER
Blundell'8 School,
Tiverton, Devon.

Differential Equations and Applications. By J. B. SCARBOROUGH.

Pp. xiv, 479. 1965. (Warley Press Inc.)
This is a textbook written for mathematicians, scientists and engineers
by a Professor of Mathematics at the U. S. Naval Academy. As a result
of his position and experience the author favours placing greater
emphasis on the formulation of practical problems as differential
equations and on the interpretation of their solutions.
The book is in two parts, the first of which treats the methods for
obtaining formal solutions of ordinary and partial differential equations
mainly of the first and second order. As in so many American books
on differential equations, no attempt is made at a systematic treatment
of ordinary linear types with constant coefficients by the D-operator,
though the technique is cursorily mentioned. The methods employed
are mainly those of undetermined coefficients and the Laplace transform.
Equations with variable coefficients are solved by numerical and
graphical methods and also by series solutions. The equations of Bessel,
Legendre and Mathieu are treated in some detail. Part I also contains
the simpler types of partial differential equations which are solved by
means of trial substitutions, separation of variables and Fourier series.
Part II contains a wide range of applications of differential equations.
Except where the theory is too involved the equations are derived ab
initio from known laws. The topics treated include the rate of growth
law, resisted motion, landing of airplanes, catenaries, electrical circuits,
flight of projectiles and rockets, heat conduction in solids, elastic
deformations of beams, columns and circular plates, the rolling and
heaving of ships, transmission lines and astronomical problems.
This book may be of limited potentiality in a conventional British
undergraduate course. It should, however, go far in satisfying the
needs of the growing team of scientists and technologists for whom
mathematics as a working tool is indispensable.
F. CHORLTON
Department of Mathematics,
Birmingham Collegeof Advanced Technology.

This content downloaded from 192.236.36.29 on Mon, 26 Oct 2015 22:59:13 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions