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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 27, No. 13. 1964.

[introduction]

Interesting talks were given by Messrs. I. W. Wright and G. C. Wake, both mathematics honours students, at a recent mathematical and physical society meeting.

Mr. Wake gave the background to a recently published paper, Calorimetry of Oxidation, of which he was co-author.

The paper stemmed from the application of "high powered mathematics" to a chemical problem—that of finding the highest temperature in a body which is decaying or fermenting. This problem is relevant to spontaneous combustion in wool, hay or sawdust.

The problem was formulated mathematically in terms of differential equations and Mr. Wake described how he grappled with these to produce a result which satisfied the chemists.

The talk kept incomprehensible mathematics to a minimum and gave the audience a good insight into the development of applied mathematics in practice.