SHAEVEL AND PAUL - NEW MATH TEXT by Jim Gormley One of the labels used to define the human species is "tool user." For different ac tivities, there are different tools - eoliths, hairpins, trowels, and mathematics. Math for most people is a means to an end, a tool used to define an elusive reality. This term, a new mathe matics text graces the High acres campus - Essentials of Technical Mathematics - by pro- remove Richard Paul of the Math Department and M. Leonard Shaevel of the Physics Depart ment. Representing two years of work by the Paul-Shaevel team Essentials is desi:•ed specifically for the associate degree engineering student. Their desire was to create a text that grounded mathematics in its engineering application; in Mr. Paul's words, "We saw the need for a 'suitable' text." Supplying the element of suitability involved in clusion of over 1000 examples and 3,500 exercises, many of which drew heavily on physical phenomena. The projects involved a sizeable expenditure of time and energy. After submitting a preliminary draft of the first few chapters to the pub lisher, Prentice Hall, a con tract was executed agreeing to publish a 'manuscript by a specific date. "Here the real work began," Mr. Shabvel said, "We really had our hands full." The authors prepared several chapters and proofread every word, example, diagram, exer cise, and answer for accuracy. This draft was sent to Prentice Hall for preliminary printings, called "galleys." Here the text was again checked for accuracy and sent to be type set. Due to the labor in tensive nature of the type setting industry many of the more competitive firms, here Dai Nippon t are in Japan. Th e ..Japanese ~s et. Highacres Colle,rin,, bol for symbol as it came from Prentice Hall; no English li teracy was, required on their part. Galleys were printed in , America from Dai Nippon typeset and sent to the au thors. It was during this cycle that problems developed. Gal leys would arrive long over due because Dai Nippon was swamped with work from other sources. There was also the problem of errors in the gal leys. Due to the detailed complexity and volume of the material, errors slipped through the proofreading pro cess. "We were-extremely con cerned about errors," Mr. Paul said, "because we knew how they frustrate students." Subscripts and exponents ap peared in the wrong value or were omitted, for example. Revision instructions were sometimes ineffectual because mathematicians tended to speak math and publishers tended to hear English. Both attribute► the problems to an information explosion. "There's so much information that the system we worked by couldn't remove all their errors," Mr. Shaevel recounted. The object was to reduce them to a minimum. Both credit the Prentice Hall staff with a great deal of their success and charac terize them as "real profes sionals." Looking forward to the future, Mr. Shaevel cited the Engineering Committee for Professional Development eval uation of 1973. The ECPD found a discrepancy in the cal culus level in the engineering r1,..+,,1,., IA. 197 A. Page Five curriculum. This means future . engineering A.D.'s will have to cope with more sophistica tion and difficulty in courses. Anticipating this development the authors forsee a need for revision in higher level texts. So look forward to more from this dynamic pair. ORIENTATION POLL During the past few weeks, the COLLEGIAN has been conducting an opinion poll concerning freshmen orienta tion. We have simultaneously been conducting a poll and. new students' impressions of the Highacres campus. The gen eral consensus indicated a great amount of displeasure with the actual orientation proceedings, bu an agreement that the campus itself was a pleasant and friendly place. Following is a composite pic ture of the freshmen's opin ions of Orientation proceed ings. The names of the fresh men who contributed their opin ions have been omitted: "I did not like most parts of Orientation. The thought behind it was commen dable...the part where certain members of the administration were introduced, when students CONTINUED ON PAGE 9
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