The Maths And Physics Society

President: Mr. M. Boldt

Secretary: Mr. T. Waghorn

The highlight of the Maths and Physics Society's activities this year will be the visit to the University by a space mobile from the United States. It contains scale models of launch vehicles and space craft, and mechanical and electronic devices, which are used in a lecture-demonstration on space science. This space mobile will be shown in E 006 one evening early in the second term.

At its meetings held fortnightly on Thursdays in Hunter D1, the Society discusses topics of interest. There is usually a lecture, followed by questions and general discussion, and supper is served free. Lectures so far this year have included a talk on the Cook Strait Cable by an Electricity Department official, a lecture by Professor J. T. Campbell on the shape of mathematics, and talks by three graduate students who had been engaged in the Summer Research Programme in Antarctica. It is hoped to have a speaker on computers at a meeting in the near future.

In an effort to encourage Stage I students, who have regrettably not been well represented at past meetings, the Society's committee has decided to foster an undergraduates' society which will hold a special meeting once a term. Despite the fact that the majority of people at the meetings are graduates, the president of the Society, feels that many Stage I students would find the lectures interesting, and he hopes to see more undergraduates attending this year's meetings.

The meetings are usually well attended and there were 80 present at the first meeting for 1965. The Society is very strongly supported by the staff members, who take a keen and active interest in its affairs.

Afternoon trips are sometimes organised to places of interest such as the television studios or to see the computers at Ibm. There have been no other social functions in the past, but this year's committee is investigating the possibility of having more social activities.