FIFTY YEARS OF CASMT 401

a quartic with one positive real root (found by successive substitu-tion, by Homer’s or Newton’s method, etc.). The corresponding valueof z may then be obtained from

g==^/o2�^2.

For example, ifa=5,6=4,(;=l, the quartic is

^(.r-2)=9(^-l)2

with positive root

x=3.32S

and

2=3.734,

approximately.

FIFTY YEARS OF CASMT

EDWARD BosProviso Township High School, Maywood, III,

With apologies to HenryAnd his justly proud descendants,May I once again remind youOf the coming of the CASMT,Of the founding of the CASMT,Of the naming of the CASMT?How it grew and how it flourished,How it came to choose the autumn,Choose the glowing, waning autumnAs the time for holding meetings?

In the early 1900*sIn a time dimly remembered,�Long before the horseless carriageWith its duster costumed driverWearing goggles set in leatherSent poor Dobbin to the pasture,There to grieve and there to languish�

In the days of three dimensions,In the time preceding Einstein;Ere the tiny little atomHad disclosed its mighty power�

In the days when good Kris KringleStill belonged to little children,Still was dwelling at the North Pole,Seemed content to drive his reindeer,Came each year with sled well laden,Filled with dominoes and checkers,Popcorn balls and candied apples�

SCHOOL SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

In the days when Christmas morningWas a time of peace and quiet�When behind each chair and sofaLurked no armed desperado,Later to be felled with "Bang! Bang!"From a better armed Roy RogersBorne upon his faithful TriggerGalloping at speed unmeasured,�In the early 1900’s

Came a band of physics teachersIn the blush and bloom of springtimeTo the city of Chicago.

Here this band of eager teachersHeld an animated confabOf the ways and means of physics,Principles and laws of nature�Of the laws of falling bodies,Of the laws of gravitation,Of the laws of conservation,Of notation and of friction,Of rebound and of refraction,�Laws of Ohm and Lenz and Pascal,And the principle of Doppler,Principle of Archimedes.

Fled were all their cares and worries,And their eyes did twinkle, sparkle,

. As they spoke of liquefaction,Of the synchro-mesh transmission,Of the Wheatstone bridge, of voltage,Of reluctance and inductance,Of capacitive reactance.

And this band of eager teachersSought to learn one from the otherHow they might improve instructionSought for measures to determineValues to be found in content�Hoping thereby to choose wiselyWhat be taught and what deleted.

Pleased were they with their progress,Glad to find a common purpose,And they planned a second meetingOf the same year, in Chicago.

Now they organized for service,Chose a staff of five to guide them,�And as president was chosenC. H. Smith of Hyde Park High SchoolOf the city of Chicago�Gave themselves a name, a title,Called it an association,The Central Association(plus, of course) of Physics Teachers.

Once more that same year,�November,C.A.P.T. met together,This time also in Chicago.

FIFTY YEARS OF CASMT

In the meantime other teachers,Teachers teaching mathematics,Heard about the C.A.P.T.Thought it was a big step forwardOn the path of education.And they drew up a petitionBegging that the C.A.P.T.Take thought to extend its limitsTo encompass all of science,To embrace the mathematics�Thus create a stronger weaponIn the cause of education.

Members of the C.A.P.T.Gladly worked throughout the summerFormulated plans, expandedTo include their science brethrenAnd their next of kin, the math men.Then in nineteen three, in April,In the city of Chicago,C.A.P.T. metamorphosedAnd emerged C.A.S.M.T.

Since then, once each year, in autumn,In the last month but December,At the time of the ThanksgivingCome the members of the CASMTTo the chosen place of meeting.From the lakes of Minnesota,

From the east beyond Ohio,From Missouri and Kentucky,From the western plains of Kansas,Come the members of the CASMT.There they all break bread together.

There they share their skills and technics,Share their failures and successes,Share their hopes, their aspirations.

Tempered is their conversation,Tempered, too, their formal programBy the current social statusAnd the economic welfareOf the peoples of the nations.

Through the teens of 1900 .

The association membersStruggled ever for acceptanceOf a program of instructionWhich would silence every critic�Those who thought that math and scienceHad been couched in style too formal,�Was not meat meant for the masses,�Only served researchers, medics,�Held no values for the farmer,�Was impractical for women.

In the gay and roaring twentiesThe Association meetingsEmphasized the mathematics;Everything was mathematics,

SCHOOL SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

All the talk was mathematics,Industry and mathematics,�Medicine and mathematics,�Sciences and mathematicsHow to think�and mathematics.

But when came the dismal thirties�And the little pigs were slaughtered�And the fields of corn plowed under�People paid for doing nothing�Suddenly the members wakened,Wakened with a sickened conscience,Faced the fact that the resourcesOf our great beloved countryWere misused, would be depleted.

Rous’ed were the men of scienceThose who dealt with protoplasm,And they stimulated thinking�Built up attitudes most worthyIn the cause of conservation.Through the dark and dismal thirties

Conservation was the watchword,Conservation was the banner,Every meeting made provisionFor some mention of the problem.Oft the main course of the menu�-Sometimes offered as a salad.

Each time war clouds lower darkly,And the young men march to battle,The association membersSeek to make their contributionIn the cause of truth and justice.

Each time some great law of natureIs revealed to men of learningIt becomes the task of scienceAnd of math men to interpretTo an eager worried peopleIts import for daily living.

Thus with program ever changing,With high purposes before them,Every year the loyal membersOf the CASMT meet together.Even now they are assembled,If you listen you can hear themLike the voice of many waters,Like the voices of confusionThat rose once from BabePs tower.

See this group with happy faces,Listen to their eager voices,Follow them in conversationAs they speak of things that matter,Speak of numbers, letters, figures,Speak of quadratic equations,Laugh together over tangents,Polygons and arcs and segments,Speak in riddles about quotients,

FIFTY YEARS OF CASMT

Logarithms, exponentials,Vertices, interpolationsSquares and parallelepipeds.

Would you know what these are saying?Would you hear their words of wisdom?Would you learn the hidden secretsOf the living protoplasm?You must list in rapt attentionFor their words are full of meaning,Full of letters and of meaning.Have you marked that they are talkingAbout things that last forever?Of the Algae, the beginning,In the phyllum Thallophyta,Of the ending, the Ameba,In the phyllum Protozoa,Of the Algae and Ameba,The beginning and the ending!

And their faces gleam with raptureAs they speak of cotyledons,Speak of monocotyledons,Speak of gay dicotyledons.Who is there who has not trembled

At the thought of Amanita,Amanita, deadly fungus?Who has not beheld the beauty

Sensed the fragrance of the onion,The wild onion, Allium Cernuum?

Faces too seem animatedAt the mention of Euglena,At the thought of Paramecium,At remembrances of Rana.Who is there who has not trembled

In the presence of Eunectes,Of Eunectes, anaconda!Who can not endure the beauty

Or the softness, warmth, and glamor,Of a coat of mink, Mustela?

Let us not forget the chemists,They who analyze synthetics,Deal with elements and compoundsSpeak a language unfamiliarSave to those initiated.For they speak of salts and acids,Speak of alkaloids, hydroxides,Valences, anions, cations,Happy halogens and halides,Moles and molecules, and atoms.

Since the early 1900’sTo the present 1950Every year a band of teachersMeet together at Thanksgiving,There to learn what’s new in science,There to ponder mathematics,And returning to their classroomsFind new hope to face the future.