12—The Daily Collegian Thursday. July 18, 1985
Volcker warns
WASHINGTON (AP) Federal Reserve Chair
man Paul Volcker yesterday warned of "strain,
imbalance and danger" in the U.S. economy and
once again urged Congress to do something about
soaring federal budget deficits.
The chairman of the nation's central bank said
the United States had enjoyed a relatively strong
economic recovery for 2 1 / 2 years with low inflation,
but he said budget and foreign trade deficits were
posing a growing threat.
"The inherent strength of our economy and the
momentum of our expansion have carried us a
long way," he said in testimony before a House
Banking subcommittee. "But we also do not need
to look far to see signs of strain, imbalance and
danger."
VOlcker's comments came a day after the cen-
Mathematician Paul Erdos speaks to a standing room only crowd in 101 Kern emetics as an art form. But unlike painting and music, he said, mathematics
Building on Tuesday afternoon. During his , lecture, Erdos described math• is a cumulative art form new generations build on work done in the past.
Lecturer exults the joys
By NAN CRYSTAL ARENS
Collegian Staff Writer
The lecture room was packed.
Every seat was taken and late-comers were
forded to sit on the floor or stand in the back,
straining to hear. But it was not a politician or
entertainment personality who drew such a
crowd to Kern Building on Tuesday, it was a 72-
year-old mathematician named Paul Erdos.
"Despite my age, I will manage to finish my
talk," Erdos said, hobbling to the chalkboard in a
worn pair of leather sandals.
At the beginning of his talk, Erdos complained
of a sore ankle, which made walking or even
standing painful. Half way through his lecture,
however, he returned to the microphone and with
a very broad smile said: "Mathematics is won
derful, isn't it. This is so interesting, I have
forgotten all about my ankle."
And for Erdos, mathematics is wonderful,
magical and a little spiritual.
Erdos described mathematics as an art form
that could stand alongside painting, sculpture
and music. But unlike painting and music, math
ematics is a cumulative art.
"You can't look at a painting by one of the
great masters or even the cave paintings, which
are 20,000-years-old, and say that today's art is
better," he said.
However, mathematics is cumulative each
new generation builds on work done in the past.
"Any student today can do better than Newton
or Euclid," Erdos said. "Once you have found
the proof it always looks much easier."
- Finding the simplest proof for a difficult math
ematical theorm can be made easier by a large
book Erdos claims is in the hands of God.
IFREE DELIVERY DAILY
Starting at 11 a.m. Wear your Pizza7T T-Shirt
into the store and get 1 free
234-0182 one coupon per customer topping on a slice!
•
®• • elso
1 1%7 6 RP.
11111Plik 401~ 111
ra I
of growing threats to economy
tral bank revealed that it had boosted one of its key
money supply targets for the rest of 1985, a move
interpreted by many as giving the Fed more
leeway to continue an easy credit policy designed
to foster a rebound in economic growth.
However, Volcker told the House panel that the
central bank was reaching the limits of what it
could do through monetary policy to keep the.
economy thriving.
"We are dealing with a situation marked by
gross imbalances that can neither be sustained
indefinitely nor dealt with successfully by mone
tary policy alone," Volcker said.
Volcker and many other economists believe that
huge federal budget deficits have driven interest
rates higher than they otherwise would have been,
attracting foreign investment which has kept the
"God has a . . . book with all (mathematical)
theorems and their simplest proofs. If, (God)
looks favorably on us he shows us the book for a
moment," Erdos said. "You don't have to believe
in God, only the book."
Erdos' talk on finite mathematics and number
theory was laced with favorite jokes and anic
dotes about his travels his mind flashing back
and forth between the two polar topics as if they
were completely compatible in his mind.
After outlining one mathematical proof on the
chalkboard, Erdos returned to the microphone
and said "You know, I'm really 2.5 billion-years
old."
"When I was the age of most of the people in
this room," Erdos explained, "the Earth was two
billion years old but it was very difficult to
determine the age. Now, they say the earth is 4.5
billion-years-old so ,I must be 2.5 billion years-of
age."
Erdos, who is the last of the world's itinerant
scholars, has no home or family. He travels from
university to university offering his help in
solving difficult mathematical problems.
Steven Krantz, University professor of math
ematics and Erdos' host in State College, said he
carried all of Erdos' worldly possessions in two
small sacks.
"Private property is a nuisance," Erdos said
He added that he did not miss not having a
home or family, although his mother traveled
with him before her death at age 91.
"My mother used to say, 'I don't travel be
cause I like to, I travel to be with my son,' "
Erdos said, adding that he was very close to his
parents who were both matherinaticians.
Erdos said he could not remember when he
first became interested in mathematics.
f ~~
*Whole wheat dough available
1 FREE 32 oz. drink
with any Stromboli
Pizza Tr,
U.S. dollar at high levels. The strong dollar has in
turn given the country record trade deficits by
making imports cheaper and U.S. exports tougher
to sell overseas.
The trade and budget deficits are currently
being handled by "piling up debts abroad in
amounts unparalleled in our history," Volcker
warned.
"When we are living on this much borrowed
money, we are also living on borrowed time,"
Volcker said.
Responding to a question, Volcker repeated an
assertion he made earlier this year that Congress
needs to cut the $2OO billion deficit by $5O billion in
1986 to have a favorable impact on financial
markets.
of math
"I was too young, I don't remember," he
replied, adding that when he was very young and
his mother was away he would play with the
calender.
"Then, suddenly, I knew how to calculate," he
said.
Erdos said mathematics and music were simi
lar art forms because they both produced child
proteges.
"If you have your natural ability you can do a
lot very soon," Erdos said. "I was somewhat of
child protege myself."
He recalled that when he was four-years-old he
went to his mother and announced his revelation
that 100 minus 250 equals 150 below zero. "That
was quite nice for a four-year-old."
He added, however, that mathematics did not
have to be mysterious and incomprehensible to
the average person.
"It's like playing the piano," Erdos said,
"everyone can do some but not everyone can
play very well."
Before closing, Erdos made several comments
about genius.
"Einstein said genius is 99 percent perspira
tion and one percent inspiration," he said. "In
mathematics you don't have to prespire so much,
your brain just has to be open."
Erdos said having an "open brain" means
always being ready to accept new ideas and drop
what you are doing to'follow them up a trait
useful in all professions.
Perhaps having an open brain has made it
possible for Erdos to publish over 1,000 papers
during his career.
Krantz pointed out that for most mathemati
cians, 50 to 100 papers is a large figure for
lifetime.
1 / 2 price!
Dresses
All Weather
Coats
Swimsuits
Skirtsuits
Slacks
Skirts
Extra Specials at Much More than
1 / 2 OFF
While Temperatures are High
.
Our Prices are Low ,
open Tonight 'til 9:00 P.M. .::'.
1
alleilCat l it
135 Calder Alley
Elms being sprayed
to control beetles
By NAN CRYSTAL ARENS
Collegian Staff Writer
Pesticide spraying was sched
uled to begin last night along cam
pus malls and around Old Main in
an attempt to combat the bark
beetles spreading Dutch elm dis
ease.
Ardath Johnson, coordinator for
information services with the Of
fice of Physical Plant, said yester
day that weather permitting,
University ground crews would
begin spraying at 9 last night.
This is the second pesticide
spraying this year for University
elms, she said.
The crews will use methoxych
lor the chemical they have used
for several years to control the
beetles, Johnson said.
Johnson added that spraying
will continue Tuesday at 6 a.m.
when helicopters will spray all
campus elms and many of the
elms in town.
However, bad weather could
postpone the spraying because the
pesticide• cannot be administered
in the rain, fog, or wind, she said.
The spraying became necessary
when University tree specialists
discovered the five diseased elms
cut down on campus earlier this
week were infested with the bark
beetles, which can spread deadly
Dutch elm disease to healthy
trees.
John Peplinski, coordinator of
the University's Plant Disease
Clinic, said that when beetles live
in trees infected with the Dutch
elm disease fungus, they can
spread the disease to healthy trees
when they fly away to feed.
"When those beetles emerge
(from under an infected tree's
bark), they are likely to be cov
ered with (fungal) spores and they
could fly to nearby trees and infect
Beads produced in space
go on sale commercially
WASHINGTON (AP) The first
products manufactured in space for
commercial use went on sale, yester
day, good news for anyone who needs
millions of microscopic latex.beads.
The National Bureau of Standards
said it has begun shipping vials of the
beads to companies that can use them
to calibrate special instruments that
make or measure finely ground parti
cles. ' -
"They will be used to improve
microscopic measurements made
throughout the economy in electron
ics, medicine and other high-technol
ogy areas," Ernest Ambler, director
of the bureau, told a news briefing.
The beads, each 10 micrometers or
1-2,500 th of an inch in diameter,
were made aboard the space shuttle
Challenger using a chemical process
developed by the National Aeronau
tics and Space Administration and
Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa.
"This material is the first of what
we expect will be a long line of
products to carry a made-in-space
Storewide Summer
FASHIONS
NOW ALL
Plus
them," Peplinski said
Two of the five trees cut down on
campus were confirmed to have
Dutch elm disease, while the re
maining three were suspected of
harboring the disease, he added.
• "Chances are, all five have it,"
Peplinski said.
Johnson said the spraying next
Tuesday will cover a one half mile
radius from the infested elms and
will focus on elm stands around
Old Main, on - Burrows Road, Col
lege Avenue, the Grange Building,
Ritenour Health Center, Eastview
Terrace McKean Street and Has
tings Road.
"We're just going to spray all of
campus," she added. "These are
the larger concentrations of elms
there are also isolated elms that
will also be sprayed."
Marcus Schneck, University
public information officer, said
although there was less danger of
the spray penetrating the foliage
now than during early spring
. sprayings, he advises people not to
park their cars along the spray
routes between 6 a.m. and about
8:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Johnson cautioned people living
in residential areas who have chil
dren not to leave toys outside
during the spraying.
Johnson said the spraying was
part of the University's overall
program to prevent the spread of
Dutch elm disease, which threat
ens the 300-plus elms on campus.
Chiko Haramaki, professor of
horticulture and chairman of the
University's Tree Commission,
said "the preventive maintenance
is working."
"Until we had this outbreak
where (the disease) was spread
ing through the root grafts (along
the Mall), we were finding about
one diseased tree per year," Hara
maki said.
label," said NASA Adininistrator
James M. Beggs.
Other products of space manufac
turing expected in a few months or
years include new classes of pure
drugs to fight disease, perfect crys
tals for electronic components and
new alloys, Beggs said.
NASA turned the beads over to the
bureau so that they could be mea
sured and certified for size. The bu
reau makes and distributes
extremely pure and accurately mea
sured materials to serve as refer
ences for industry.
The space agency said it turned to
the bureau to sell the products be
cause it already has a distribution
system set up.,The bureau has more
than 900 different standard reference
materials, or SRMs, available and
sells about 40,000 units annually to
industrial, scientific and commercial
users.
The bureau said it will sell about
600 units of the space beads for $384
each.
Handbags
Blouses
op.
Lingerie
Robes
Hats