Central High School - Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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MATHEMATICS DEPARTMENT During recenT years maThemaTics has undergone a mosT re- markable change. lTs very ToundaTions have been criTically examined. Some oT iTs TradiTional Techniques have been dis- garded. oThers have been changed radically. Basic deTiniTions have been so changed ThaT a whole new vocabulary of maThe- maTics has sprung up. We, aT CenTral, have Tried To kee abreasT of This rising Tide of modern maThemaTics in a world ThaT is so deTiniTely scienTiTic and Technological. ExperimenTaTion wiTh enTirel new courses. modiTicaTion oT older TradiTional maThemaTicail pro- grams and The wriTing of TexTbooks To implemenT These new Techniques are buT a Tew of The ways in which your maThe- maTics deparTmenT is aiming To keep CenrTral High in The Tore- TronT of educaTional insTiTuTions. Accordingly, we hope ThaT you. off The 2I4Th Class, have received some oT The concepTs oT This newer maThemaTics and will go ouT inTo The world embued wiTh The ideal of using These concepTs To make This world a beTTer place in which To live. DR. CLYDE A. SCHOCK Head of MaThemaTics DeparTmenT AT IasT--real maThemaTics. Up To This Time maTh meanT numbers'To be Torn aparT in various ways and Then To be puT TogeTher again. Now The days oT ariThmeTical. mechanical drudgery were over. Tini. We began wiTh algebra. lT was very complicaTed. A whole numb-er didn'T maTTer. Our illusions abouT iTs grandeur were shaTTered. We used leTTers. We Tried To preTend They were whole numbers. buT They meanT much more Than ThaT. Their values were pesky. and kepT changing. Each Time we did a diTTerenT problem. They changed. SomeTimes, when we did The same problem. They changed. BuT They were always equal To Z. IT was The only sTable Thing in algebra.

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a li is Q' . re , B E ns E 5 uv : 'f 5 I. ' iff? . Q.-gr Mr. Ba sky Mr. Borkowih Mr. Cados M Ca puni 41 haroon r. Dis M Mr. Goldberg ii? X fe '-if f 'LL' 'WNW Vz, . . LL,'L1 1 lei? I EWMEM AD He Dr. Horan Mr. gli l pelhed one ol lhree, killed a bird lhal was supposed lo bring good luck: lrom lhen on lhe old guy had had il. Everyone had bad luck. Even hanging lhe dead bird around his neck did nol help. ln our innocenl sophomore days we read lhe line Waler, waler, everywhere, nor any drop lo drink. Bul now . . . Older and wiser we come lo Silas lvlarner. Juniors, re- member lhal George Eliol was a woman. You don'l have lo, bul if nolhing else will help you pass, lhal will. In Tale ol Two Cilies we were inlroduced lo Charles Dickens. ln lhis lale ol romance, advenlure, inlrigue, and knilling, we learned lhal, Tis a lar, lar beller lhing . . . We really learned lhal il is a lar. lar beller lhing lo allow plenly ol lime lo read a book by Dickens. This conlacl wilh Dickens bursl inlo lull bloom when we encounlered lhal lovable schoolboy, David Copperlieldf' This book was ol such glreal lenglh lhal we were immedialely hoslile lowards il. Bul, aller a monlh ol diligenl reading, we were nearly linished. Now, we are slill hoslile lowards il. Remember lhe names ol lhe characlers - you mighl wanl lo use lhem on your enemies somelime. Then, we have William Shakespeare. l-le wrole many plays, all ol lhem lamous. ln honor ol him lhe phrase spol and gloss was invenled. He was so loved by our classmales lhal many slayed on al Cenlral longer lhan lour years. They wanled lo gel lhe lull impacl ol lhis lileralure. We read Julius Caesar. Romeo and Juliel, Macbelh, l'lamlel, and possibly more -who can remember? Nol only did we read lhem, loul we read lhem again, and again, and again. We're educaled. We read olher lhings loo. We read poelry, essays, and even shorl slories. We read lols ol lhings. The lhird gieneral area ol English is composilion. We wrole aboul whal we did, whal we wanled lo do, and whal we would have done. We wenl so deeply inlo crilical analysis lhal we could crilicize lhe crilicism ol a crilical analysis. Since mosl ol us wanled lo do, did do, and would have done very much lhe same lhings, our papers were very much alike. The major difference was in lhe magnilude ol our abilily lo murder lhe English language. I3

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E U5 E S2 i I E o a I i .E s 0 -I A: I A. O C C 0 9 O Mr. Mr. Pennypacker 5 H 5 an 1: Q .l 5 n. I5 :I I 3 I J: E 3 We learned abouT equafions. An equafion is a group of Terms wholly unrelafed, wiTh an equal sign somewhere near The middle. EquaTions were invenTed To be solved. We learned abouT subTracTing. which is really addiTion. and abouT addifion, which is really addifion. buT was The same as subfracfion. We subTracTed up. ThaT made iT algebraic. A new cosmic visTa unfolded before our innocenT eyes- signs. MulTiplying a plus by a plus equaled a plus. Okay. MulTiplying a plus by a minus Turned ouT To equal a minus. STiII okay. BuT mulfiplying a minus by a minus was a plus. Why? Two wrongs don'T make a righT. The Teachers gave us dirfy looks when we asked Them To reveal The secreT. We iusT had To accepT iT on faifh. Then leTTers and numbers seemed To give birTh To liH'le numbers which were placed reverenfly above Their parenTs. They were called exponenTs. They Tell how many Times you mulfiply somefhing by ifself. VVe sTill don'T undersfand exponenfs. We spenT a year doing geomefry. IT was a lesson in logic. All you do is prove hypofheses according To The esTablished Theorems. Mosfly we proved ThaT Triangles and Things were equal or similar. lf we didn'T know The Theorems, we invenfed ones. IT was easy. Second year algebra review firsT year algebra for half a ear. Then iT became complicaTed. We found ouT ThaT curved lines aren'T iusT curved lines. They are graphs of equafions. The Trick is guessing The equafion, or visa versa. Then There were logs. Logs are glorified exponenTs wiTh a complicafed seT of rules designed To speed up simple mulTiplicaTion problems. Trigonomefry was a half year course proving ThaT if you know any Three Things abouf any Triangle. you can become compleTely confused. We learned ThaT if you wanT To, you can roTaTe Triangles Through quadranfs. Nobody wanTed To. We s enT Two chapfers doing problems mechanically and Two more cloing The same problems wiTh log Tables. IT was efficienf. We learned abouT The sine curve and oTher fascinafing biTs of informafion. For Those who Iasfed To The end. maTh analysis was The final course. The firsf Thing we were Told was ThaT we hadn'T been doing maThemaTics'for Three and a half years, iusT fancy ariThmeTic. This was a disfressing shock. We found ouT whaT seTs were. Then we began calculus. Only iT wasn'T called calculus. BuT everyThing was The same as calculus. ill' was a lesson in reasoning. l We weren'T supposed To go To college Thinking we knew calculus. ThaT never was a problem for us. So. we finished maTh . . . four years . . . where would iT lead? iz is