Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbatt!ihnp4!houxm!mtuxo!mtgzz!leeper
From: leeper@mtgzz.UUCP
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: Military funding in maths
Message-ID: <2274@mtgzz.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 17-Nov-86 13:04:31 EST
Article-I.D.: mtgzz.2274
Posted: Mon Nov 17 13:04:31 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 18-Nov-86 07:43:53 EST
References: <307@stracs.cs.strath.ac.uk>
Organization: AT&T, Middletown NJ
Lines: 17
Summary: I agree, Math doesn't win wars


I have to agree.  Mathematics doesn't win wars.  People win wars.  Ants
win wars.  (I suppose other things do to, but they don't come to mind.)
But far more than in the time of Napolean people with better
mathematics have an advantage over those without.  Cryptography did not
turn the tide in WWII, but it sure helped.  The mathematics behind the
a-bomb saved a lot of Japanese lives as well as the obvious American
lives.  (Ever think about how the world would have been different if
the US had gone ahead with its plan to invade Japan?  Probably over a
million killed on each side, I have heard it estimated.  That would
have made for a very different world today.)  Even without war math
gives a real advantage over competitors.  The we are at war with nobody
right now but government is still vitally interested in mathematics.
Isn't that how this whole discussion started?

				Mark Leeper
				...ihnp4!mtgzz!leeper