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An earlier article in this series' produced a lot of written discussion, some of which was published in these pages 2. It was not, of course, unexpected . Indeed, in the article itself I suggested that there would be demands comparable with those of some 2,000 years ago : "Give us a sign".

Now I thought that I had done this in revealing the amazing patent specification of one Henry Wallace of Missouri, but it obviously did not satisfy Ivir Coates. And yet Ralph Coates and I have so much in -'common. There are sentences in his text that I shall use again many times in defense of my theories...

The title for this article was suggested to me by memories of the early days of Pop Music, deplored by my parents' generation, some of whom suggested that it would make the Great Masters turn in their graves . One composer took up this theme and wrote a piece of music that he thought would be particularly offensive to conventionalists and called it "Roll over, Beethoven" . What I have to say now will, I trust, be equally offensive to those among you who have a sound bedrock of fundamental mechanics. But like the popular music, it will not be something on which they can casually turn their backs. It will be as Omar Khayyam described: "The moving finger writes; and, having writ, moves on ---"

These paragraphs have their origin in two letters on the subject of gyroscopes, one of which was sent to the New Scientist, from which an abstract was published in the 28th November, 1974, issue in "Ariadne's " column, and the other was sent to Electrical Review. Both deserve a considered reply, such as together occupy the space normally allocated to articles in this series.

Adult people are very lothe to show their ignorance to their fellow men, which is a pity, because they then go around feeling inferior when, were they to declare their ignorance to a companion or small group, the odds are that nobody would know anyway! Small children are not so commonly afflicted this way. As they become teenagers they begin to have pride and to pretend, in the main, that they understand, certainly the fashionable words of the day.