June 06, 2019 Thursday
Bedtime Story
Understanding the United States of Gibbs' Era
Not too far back (in 1846) the young nation
had went to war with Mexico fought over the United States annexation of Texas
that ended in 1848 with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo brining to United
States the present-day states of California, Nevada, and Utah and most of New
Mexico, Arizona and Colorado and parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Wyoming.
The present border of the United States
with Mexico of the Rio Grande that the current President so strongly hopes to
defend and barricade was also established by this treaty.
The Rio Grande, by the way along with the
Colorado River, is one the principal rivers in the Southwest United States and
northern Mexico.
The United States-Mexico border that
stretches for 3,145 kilometers is the most frequently crossed international
border of the world.
In brief United States in 1860s was a
nation seeking its way out of darkness and was in no state to promote culture,
science and most of all mathematics.
I also have sincere doubt that any
individual from across the world including South Asia would have wished to land
in this United States (as many desire so badly today) which apparently always
seemed to be either in conflict or war either with itself some European power.
But Gibbs unlike others from other nations
was born into this nation and he had only Europe to look up to in his times.
This was particularly true when it came to
fundamental or theoretical sciences and mathematics.
But even after visiting the brilliant
scientific luminaries in France and Germany Gibbs eventually returned to his
homeland and joined Yale as a teacher without pay.
In the beginning, quite absurdly, he taught
French to the engineering students at rather than mechanical engineering.
In 1871 at the age of 32 Gibbs was appointed
professor of mathematical physics at Yale without having a single publication
in this area and not having any direct formal training in this theoretical
field.
You can imagine how absurd would it be
today for a mechanical engineer graduate to be appointed a full time
professorship in theoretical physics of such a department of a major
university!
Laughable actually but then what we take
seriously today will be scoffed at tomorrow with the changing zeitgeist!
It was bizarre and perverted in yet another
way; this professorship at Yale came without any salary!
But then this may not have been so farcical
for those times as this was the first such post of professorship in the United
States and there were no norms set as we have today.
You would also recall that United States
was going through its post-Civil War Reconstruction era that was being played
out in the background of an economy in tatters.
The cities and the towns of the South (read
as Confederacy) such as Atlanta, Charleston, Columbia, Richmond and many more
were devastated during the war.
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the International
Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I recommend
this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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