The Archimedeans

The following anthem, which was written for the society by Mr. W. Hope-Jones in 1938, seems to have fallen out of use:

All praise to Archimedes,
  Who weighed the royal hat,
Displacing quarts of h. and c.,
  Upon the bathroom mat.
For that unending decimal,
  We mortals know as $\pi$ ,
He found that three-and-one-seventh,
  Was just a bit too high.

All praise to Arthur Eddington,
  Who proved I don't know what,
Except that ev'rything you think's
  Exactly what it's not.
He knows what Albert Einstein's
  Equations are about;
And that's where he has you and me,
  And Einstein up the spout.

It may be sung to the tune of Hymn 341, A. and M. Descending to the realm of everyday life, we now print the Secretary's Report.

THE SOCIETY has once again had a very successful year with the evening meetings, on the whole, very well attended. Notable successes were those of Professor Scott, who demonstrated the difference between the torus and the sphere with the aid of his pyjamas, and of Professor Bondi whose talk on "Gravitation" attracted an audience from many other faculties. The tea-talks also drew large numbers; Professor Thurston Dart gave an excellent lecture on "Composers and Computers," whilst Professor Besicovitch and his own peculiar card game resulted in the Secretary and several friends wasting many a pleasant hour. At the start of the year the programme card showed a fortnightly computer group, a puzzles and games ring, a music group, a bridge group, a mathematical models group and a play-reading group. The end of the year, unfortunately, saw these last two enter the defunct category, although it is hoped that they will not remain in this state. The others have, however, flourished; the computer group now meets once a week, musicians are catered for by both the music group and the newly formed chamber music group, and the bridge players are forced to play with even more worn cards.

To start this year's evening meetings Professor V. C. A. Ferraro will give a talk with lantern slides on the subject of the "Magnetosphere." This is followed by the return to Cambridge of Professor E. C. Zeeman with a lecture on "Lens Spaces," Professor H. G. Eggleston on the "Kakya Problem," and to finish the Michaelmas Term, a talk by Professor D. R. Cox on "Some Industrial Applications of Probability." Between these last two talks we have the annual careers meeting, with a schoolmaster, an actuary, the Deputy Head of the Operations Research Branch of the National Coal Board and a Principal Scientific Officer from Farnborough each giving us a little insight into his own chosen trade or profession. The Lent Term is opened by Professor D. Bohm on the subject of "Space, Time and the Quantum Theory," and in fairly close succession we have the opportunity of hearing Professor W. H. Cockcroft, Professor C. A. Coulson on "Vibrations of Large Systems," and Professor W. K. Hayman, whose talk entitled "Circles, Spheres and Condensers" is on simple applications of symmetrisation to problems in applied mathematics. The tea meetings are again presided over by research students and the subjects range from Spiral Galaxies to an intriguing East African game called Mweso. The Problems Drive will again be held in February and we hope it will receive as much support as it has done in the past. There will be visits to such places as the Mathematics Division of the National Physics Laboratory at Teddington, as well as the usual excursions to various London threatres, including, if possible, a Gilbert and Sullivan opera in the Lent Term. It is hoped that there will be sufficient support to hold a dinner at Christmas, and also to launch a reasonable number of punts at the annual punt party in May.

The programme has been designed to cater for the needs of all members of the Society, but the Secretary would appreciate any suggestions as to possible improvements or alterations, which may be made either directly or through the book kept for this purpose in the Arts School.

M. A. MILLER, Secretary.

Reproduced from Eureka 27 pages 4-6.