Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 74.djvu/195

Rh The irregularity of the banks bordering a natural watercourse serves to differentiate the work of nature from that of the builder of the artificial and regular channel.

No, instead of rejecting, we must learn to retain the outstanding residuals and study them most carefully and regard them as the true facts of nature, and not those which we so egotistically and presumptuously try to force on her. What great discoveries may lie open to us when we once have grasped the true significance of the facts we have been so fond of measuring by our own standard and have been terming as "abnormal" or "irregular"!

An interesting example of not wholly successful application of the continuous and ever-recurring functions of spherical harmonics to a typical geophysical phenomenon—the distribution of magnetism over the earth's surface—has been discussed by the speaker elsewhere. Though the number of unknowns has been increased in recent computations from the original 24 of Gauss to 48, nevertheless the difference between theory and observation is of such an order of magnitude as to preclude the use of the formula for even the purely practical demands of the navigator and surveyor. Nor has any one succeeded in giving any physical interpretation of the laboriously derived coefficients beyond the first three. And what do these three stand for? The simplest possible case of a first approximation to the actual state of the earth's magnetism, viz., that of a uniform magnetization about a diameter inclined to the axis of rotation!

The prime difficulty here may be summed up in a word. The very surface over which the spherical harmonic functions are spread is itself such a prolific source of disturbance as to cause effects embracing a continent, a state or a locality. Such a large number of terms would be requisite for an adequate representation as to make their computation prohibitive. We are dealing here with more or less noncontinuous effects that cannot be imitated by continuous functions without leaving behind a train of residuals, precisely as though we were to try to fit to the actual configuration of the earth some standard pattern of our own. Let me ask what phenomenon have we, in fact, which will admit of the determination of 48, or even of 24, physical constants?

It had been my intention to say a few words on the value and limitation of that much-used as well as abused mathematical instrument of research, the method of least squares. Properly employed, it is a most useful adjunct to investigation; but, as intimated, the true significance of formulae established by this method is at times pushed far beyond the limitations. What the tenor of my remarks might be will be sufficiently evident to you if I submit this query for