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Mathematical and Physical Society

On 20th March, 1928, the Society opened its eighth session with a well-attended general meeting. After the usual business of the annual meeting had been dealt with, an adjournment was made in favour of supper, which was provided by the retiring committee.

The first lecture on the programme drawn up by the committee, was given by Professor Sommerville on "The Fourth Dimension." The Professor showed this to be a thorough-going branch of mathematics with definite application in science. The degree of certainty which attended investigations of fourth dimensional geometry was demonstrated by reasoning leading to the determination of the actual number of sides, edges, and vertices possessed by regular figures having four dimensions. Great interest was shown in models in three dimensions, which represented projections of fourth dimensional bodies.

Mrs. Sommerville, at the conclusion of the meeting, acted as hostess, providing an excellent supper.

On April 17th, Mr. F. W. G. White, B.Sc. addressed the Society on "The Structure of the Atom." The lecturer traced the steps by which knowledge of the subject had advanced and gave an outline of the Rutherford Atom Model. The paper went on to show how Bohr had modified the mechanism of this model to meet the demands of experimental data and of mathematics. Appropriate lantern slides gave an added interest to the lecture. An excellent supper was provided after the meeting by Mrs. Florance.

"The Foundations of Mathematics" was the subject before the next meeting on May 1st. This was treated by Miss A. M. Downes, M.A., and Mr. G. A. Peddie, B.A., in separate papers. Miss Downes traced the evolution of "X" and its equals from their barbaric antiquity to the present, when they have settled down as useful citizens under the laws of modern algebra. Mr. Peddie went on to probe the dark and dangerous depths of mathematical reasoning as it exists in the fundamental ideas of geometry. His attack on the adequacy of definitions of such things as a point, aroused lively discussion from the mathematicians. The physicists sat still and looked wise.

A most interesting lecture was closed with supper.

One of the most popular lectures was given by Dr. M. A. F. Barnett, on the subject: "The Propagation of Wireless Waves." This lecture took place on 29th May, and was well attended. The paper dealt chiefly with the part played by the "Heaviside Layer" of the upper atmosphere in wireless phenomena. Fading, the diurnal variation in the efficacy of wireless signalling, and the fact that wireless waves do not travel in straight lines, but follow the curvature of the earth, were some of the facts explained by the presence of such a layer of ionised rarefied gases. The paper also traced the rise and fall, and second rise in popularity of this idea, as the properties of the layer were more fully investigated. The meeting was excellently entertained at supper by Mrs. Sommerville.