I am not a mathematician. I note this here only as an observer. I expect, however, that mathematics is the basics of most science, because that seems to be what modern scientific accomplishment comes down to.

Behind the mechanic, the architect and the designer of airplanes and skyscrapers, stands the mathematician. In my early days I worked at what was then known as the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratories, out by the Buffalo Airport. The commitment of the group was to develop a guided missile for the defense department. I worked as an assistant to the engineer who was developing the guidance system of the missile; it was all electronics. I remember the first time I saw the basic plan.

It was a paper designating mathematically, the various changes to be electronically inserted at various times in the flight, to produce the necessary effects. These were to be accomplished by changes in yaw, pitch and roll in the electronic controlling circuitry; the challenges we were there to affect. I started when the development was in its infancy. I left to go into television when the first missile was ready for testing 1¢ years later. The test was successful.

It seems that everything except a birthday cake, deals with the mathematical amounts of one force or another, be it push, pull, support, thrust, or whatever is needed. On second thought, the birthday cake has math behind the proper gas pressure in the oven for a successfully timed bake.

One thing about math, is that for every right answer, there are an infinite number of wrong answers. Specificity is the hallmark of the design engineer. For example 2+2 = 4, but an ignorant person may give any number as the answer. That is basically why we have so much trouble in the world. I recall finding in more advanced classes in algebra or geometry in college, that if you kept in mind the basic rules of addition, subtraction, division and multiplication, one could avoid a lot of mistakes.

Math is a lot like music. We all enjoy properly tuned music. Music raises our appreciation of beauty and harmony. The true beauty of music is in its precision. Beautiful music has no poorly tuned pitches. I should add that there are very definite mathematical relationships between different musical pitches.

If more of us had more appreciation of, not just math, but of the fact that everything is closely governed by controlling laws just as math is, we would be more careful. Math is an unvarying, specific, rigorous science. There are not multiple choices in math. For every truth there are an infinite number of wrong unproductive answers.

Sometimes we get involved in what seem like complex issues. We get confused in problems that represent themselves as 337/674, when it is just another way of saying ¢, which we understand easily. We don’t seem to realize that life, like math and music, is also an exact science. We are too taken up with getting what we want, even if it doesn’t exist.

Reducing life down to its most basic fraction, it is dominated by intelligence over ignorance. Intelligence is specific and real. Ignorance is all the other wrong answers, meaningless and unpredictable mayhem. We are often confounded by adherence to wrong answers. The problem is, we want to do it our way, but intelligence will eventually win the day for humanity, just as light nullifies darkness.

I accept that we are not as confused as I have made it sound. Life is a growth process which may begin in ignorance but slowly grows to understanding. We grow, and understand gradually. We are somewhat like students in different grades, as in public school, from kindergarten to 12th grade. We live in our own idea of what is, and what isn’t. Some of us create strange places to live. Some of us seem to have little choice, living in the creations of others. Someday, I am sure, we will all be together. May God bless America.

Richard Westlund is a Collins resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com