I'm a solid week behind in reading my mail and have noted Leigh's comments
as to whether an archerfish understood Snell's Law or whether Willie Mays
analyzed physics in order to catch baseballs.
Along the same line, I used to teach what was called (with a straight face)
"acoustics" to musical instrument repair technicians. They were just about
totally non-mathematical! However, they were a fascinating group from whom
I learned a lot while trying to teach a lot.
The point they had the most difficulty with was the resonance series and why
instruments were "designed" to take advantage of that series. I was trying
to show them the wonderful design of octaves and frequencies and increased
spacing between tone holes, etc. They were reminding me that the first instru-
ments were hardly designed by physicists!
What I hoped they would learn to understand was that instruments evolved with-
out science, but that science later explained instruments! Such is undoubtedly
the case with Willie Mays!
Nancy Douglas
College of Agriculture & Technology
SUNY
Morrisville, NY 13408
douglanj@snymorva.cs.snymor.edu