‘MATHEMATICS FOR ENGINEERS AND PHYSICISTS’

This report — the fourth of the Organisation for Economic Development (OECD) ‘New Thinking’ series on school mathematics — deals with a problem of critical importance for the present and future output of scientific and technical manpower: “In some countries … the acquisition of the knowledge of mathematics needed to follow scientific and technical instruction at university level constitutes a serious obstacle. If this obstacle is too difficult to overcome, many naturally gifted young people are either lost to a scientific or technical career — or else, they lose heart.” Those were the terms in which the authorities of one of the 20 member countries of OECD expressed the suggestion that: “ … it would therefore be extremely interesting to come to some understanding as to how much mathematical knowledge is indispensable for engineers and scientists.”