Abstract
"MATHEMATICAL teaching," said Klein, "is a function of two variables, the subject and the pupil." In other words, it is necessary to vary the presentation of the subject to suit minds of different types. Nineteenth-century physicists, such as Kelvin and Maxwell, started as mathematicians, and many of the contemporary mathematicians relied upon physical intuition, so at that time a common course of training was possible. The interests of the two parties have now diverged. The pure mathematicians have recognized that intuition may be successful for a long time, and yet lead in the end to a terrible blunder. They now keep to the straight and narrow path of rigorous logic. For example, they do not, like Fourier, assert that any function whatever can be expanded in an infinite series of harmonic terms, but occupy themselves with the difficult task of formulating the precise conditions necessary and sufficient for this expansion.
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PIAGGIO, H. Mathematics for Physicists. Nature 154, 355–356 (1944). https://doi.org/10.1038/154355a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/154355a0