That sounds like Sheldon's religion also known as Cooperism.Originally Posted by Mathman
Maybe what Augustine meant was "Mathmen". Mathwomen aren't someone to be afraid of.
That sounds like Sheldon's religion also known as Cooperism.
Maybe what Augustine meant was "Mathmen". Mathwomen aren't someone to be afraid of.
Ah, but there are no "real" "Mathwomen". Ask some of the "Mathmen" who were around when I was a college student.
And yet this book was written during that time period:
http://www.amazon.com/Women-Mathemat.../dp/0262650096
But not Mathman, he's a good guy.
I see you can get it for $17.12. Whereas this famous book is worth only #12.29 in today's market.
http://www.amazon.com/Men-Mathematic.../dp/0671628186
Is he? He is spellbinding us with his wicked humor and darkening our spirit with his algebraic puzzles that confine us in the bonds of mathematical Hell.
Last edited by skatinginbc; 01-15-2012 at 06:45 PM.
I don't know whether Florence Nightingale is in the book you cite here, Doris, but apparently she was quite an accomplished statistician, a skill she used in later life to study the distribution of patient mortality. She apparently developed a kind of graphic called the polar area diagram.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Nightingale
I discovered this appealing aspect of Nightingale when I was researching Clara Barton and went to read up on Nightingale to compare these two pioneering women. I had known what I thought was a lot about both of them, but this area of Nightingale's expertise came as a total surprise to me. I wondered whether it's generally discussed in the math world.
Does Mathman, apparently our Lizard King of wicked mathematics, have any info on this?
Florence Nightingale invented the polar histogram as a method for displaying data on seasonal variations in deaths from various causes among wounded soldiers.
This idea found a modern application in robotics, called a “vector field histogram.” Suppose you want to design a robot that is “aware” of its environment, so it doesn’t keep bumping into obstacles in its path. So at each point of the robot’s trajectory it creates a circular distribution of visual data (a Nightingale graph), and then moves in the direction that minimizes the statistical noise that is before it. (Something like that. GS member Seniorita works in this field – maybe she can say something more about this. I once saw a video of two of Seniorita’s robots that her team programmed to learn to work together toward a common goal.)
The book that Doris P. references begins with the famous fifth century female mathematician and astronomer Hypatia. But the first named writer in history was a lady named Enheduanna, Priestess of the moon goddess of Sumeria and Akkad, 2300 BCE. She is best known today for her extant poetry, praising the moon goddess and asking the goddess’ help in destroying her political enemies. (Go on, with your bad self!)
Among her duties was running the temple observatory and keeping track of the phases of the moon. She made contributions to the Sumerican calendar that still exist (in setting the day for Easter, for instance). Mathematics being indistinguishable from astronomy, astrology, fortune-telling, etc., in those days, you could say that Enheduanna is history’s first mathematician. (There were of course mathematicians in pre-history, but we do not know their names.)
So...you're saying that Nightingale is partly responsible for the Roomba?
Seriously; that is so cool about the polar histogram. And Seniorita, you are awesome also! Hypatia of Alexandria would be proud of you. I never heard of Enheduanna. I'll go look her up.
Years ago, the artist Judy Chicago created an impressive assemblage called The Dinner Party, which consisted of embroidery and plates representing significant historical and legendary women. Hypatia is represented there, and Nightingale. I can't recall if her statistical work was mentioned.
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