‘MATHEMATICS FOR ENGINEERS AND PHYSICISTS’

Abstract

This report — the fourth of the Organisation for Economic Development (OECD) ‘New Thinking’ series on school mathematics — deals with a problem of critical importance for the present and future output of scientific and technical manpower: “In some countries … the acquisition of the knowledge of mathematics needed to follow scientific and technical instruction at university level constitutes a serious obstacle. If this obstacle is too difficult to overcome, many naturally gifted young people are either lost to a scientific or technical career — or else, they lose heart.” Those were the terms in which the authorities of one of the 20 member countries of OECD expressed the suggestion that: “ … it would therefore be extremely interesting to come to some understanding as to how much mathematical knowledge is indispensable for engineers and scientists.”

Citation

Hutchings, D.W. (1962), "‘MATHEMATICS FOR ENGINEERS AND PHYSICISTS’", Education + Training, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 20-21. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb015110