General Chemisty by H. G. Deming

As I was looking through my library, searching for a reference on chemistry, I came across this book: General Chemistry, 5th ed., by Horace G. Deming. The first edition was copyrighted in 1923, and this edition is copyrighted 1944 (though this particular book is from the fifth printing–October 1945). I skimmed through it a bit, and it seems like a really excellent book–better, anyway, than the chemistry books I had in school.

I’ve since read the first chapter, and I’m reminded why I like old books so well–the language used in modern books is so boring by comparison. For instance, Deming defines’ metallurgy as “the art or science of winning metals from their ores.” Of course, much of the ‘interesting’ word choice is due to simple shifts in language, and wouldn’t have been especially unusual at the time, but even so, older books often had some character not present in modern books; authors often wrote rather poetically, compared to the much simpler prose of modern books, devoid of ‘needless’ complexity of language. And, I find that language aside, there are many times interesting comments from the authors. For example, at the end of the first chapter (of fifty), “What Chemistry Is About”, Deming writes:

Thus, for those of us who make only a brief study of chemistry, the benefits to be expected are of an indirect nature. Increased capacity for enjoyment, a livelier interest in the world in which we live, a more intelligent attitude toward the great questions of the day–these are the by-products of a well-balanced education, including chemistry in its proper relation to other studies.

I would not expect such an aside in any modern chemistry textbook. Perhaps, for most students, it would not be a useful thing to say, but I would hope that some would have their fires of interest stoked by this comment. It’s a very optimistic view of the value of education, but I do not think optimism is a vice. And, of course, if I did not agree with the sentiment, I certainly wouldn’t have begun such an ambitious project as I have, to read many of the more important works of the Western canon. Naturally, ensuring I have a solid grounding in the sciences goes hand in hand with that.

So, I’ve set out a plan to read this within the next few months. Even reading quite slowly, at should finish the book in at most 90 days, and I don’t expect to actually take that long–the book is not quite 700 pages, counting the appendix. Of course, I shan’t be reading at quite the pace I might read some random novel, so I don’t expect to finish in a day or two, either; I must take care to read the book thoroughly, and not merely let the words pass from the pages to my eyes without continuing on to my brain.

O Calculus

Alexandre Borovik at Mathematics under the Microscope has posted a letter Donald Knuth sent to the Notices in March 1998. In it, Dr. Knuth proposed teaching calculus using big O notation. I certainly think that students could benefit from calculus being taught differently, but I admit that I don’t know what changes ought to be made, or whether Dr. Knuth’s proposal would be beneficial.

Whether the O Calculus idea is used or not, the letter is worth reading: it is always beneficial to explore other ways of doing and understanding things.

Students as consumers

Inside Higher Ed has a story about Dr. Laurence Thomas, a professor of philosophy at Syracuse University, who walked out of class–twice–because a student was sending text messages. One Syracuse student responded to this by saying:

“We the students are the customers, the consumers, the ones who make the choice every day to pay attention or not. I pay approximately $30,000 to go here, whether I text in class or not….”

I’ve seen this sort of attitude mentioned on other posts at Inside Higher Ed and The Chronicle of Higher Education, though I haven’t encountered it personally. In the comments on the story, several people support this view, and several oppose, though none for the reason that I would.

If someone told me that I was entitled some particular sort of service from my professors because I was their customer, or because I was a consumer purchasing education, I’d feel rather insulted. I am not a consumer or a customer of any sort; I am a student. I do not attend the university to purchase anything, but rather to improve myself, under the guidance of my professors.

Another point that some commenters argued is that college professors deserve no special respect that is not equally owed to the barrista at a coffee bar. I might agree with this comment, granted that the barrista has dedicated several decades to becoming an expert in the field of coffee-serving–comparable respect may be earned by comparable deeds worthy of respect.

I hope that the next time someone fears that my rights as a consumer are being violated, he’ll keep it to himself. This sort of trivialization of education just leaves me feeling rather ill.

Open Yale Courses

Yale is now offering complete video recordings, together with supplementary materials, of seven of its introductory courses online, licensed CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0. I am very pleased to see more open education content available online, especially since I feel that lectures have value beyond what we can convey in a textbook or lecture notes. I recall someone saying that writing on a blackboard is more than just what you put there–it is how you write it: a sweeping gesture underscoring an important result; a brief pause while providing explanation of some tricky concept.

I’m looking forward to watching a few of these myself. I little need another introductory physics class, but all the others look fairly interesting, and I’ll try to make the time to watch at least one lecture from each to see how interesting they may be. I may watch the Philosophy and Political Science courses entirely, although twenty hours (each!) is rather a lot to do at once, so it may take me a while.

I regret that the lectures are for non-commercial use only, although it is understandable. This limitation will prevent (for example) DVDs of the courses being made and distributed at even a very small profit, which could help distribute them to people who have not got the internet access to download them themselves. It also prevents them being used on Wikipedia, which though non-profit itself, requires that commercial use be allowed so that downstream users of its content can use it as they see fit. Additionally, the CC-BY-NC-SA license isn’t compatible with the CC-BY-SA license, so many freely-licensed works will be unavailable for use should one want to create some derivative work based on the lectures. Sadly, the fact is that Non-Commercial Isn’t Really Free.

Still, the right to republish these is one that I greatly appreciate–had they simply provided these lectures for free download with no license attached, then it would have been illegal for others to provide them for download in the event that, for example, the servers hosting them crashed, or funding was cut, or Yale simply decided that it wasn’t worth keeping them around. Now, at least, should Yale stop offering them, anyone who has downloaded a copy will legally be able to share it with others, ensuring that these lectures will be available forever to anyone who wants them.

Now that several universities are offering course materials online (some of the available lectures from various universities are listed here), I hope that other universities will follow, and that Yale and MIT and the others will continue to add more lectures. It would be absolutely wonderful if a complete undergraduate course of study were available for free in all or even some disciplines, and I would really like to see more advanced courses available as well, since most of the content at present looks like fairly introductory undergraduate material. Even with just this, though, the world is made a more open, better place. Rock on, Yale.