Congrats!

Hello World!

I would like to extend my congratulations to Maryam Mirzakhani for winning the 2014 Fields Medal, considered the Nobel Prize of math! She is the first women to win this award. I am encouraged to know math does not have to be a barrier and inspired by her accomplishment. Congrats to her!

:)

A piece of Pie chart please

Hello World!

I was sent this hilarious image and it led me to wonder about the history of the pie chart...

...And find this great article 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/magazine/who-made-that-pie-chart.html?_r=0 

The article states that pie charts were invented in 1801 by William Playfair, a Scottish engineer and they were adapted by Florence Nightingale (a statistician as well as a nurse, read more here http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/nightingale_florence.shtml) to pursuade people for her cause. I think that is one of the great examples of the value of diversity and different perspectives, people can build and grow and perfect their ideas off each other, or look at old concepts in new ways. 

Data and it's visualization are very important, but where can you go to learn more about info graphics, data visualization and other new tools to accomplish the telling of your data story? Here is one link I found to a free course http://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/computing-and-ict/computing/visualisation-visual-representations-data-and-information/content-section-0

I also found other cool resources shared by this cool women's tech blog here 

http://www.mv-voice.com/blogs/p/2014/04/17/analyze-data-yourself-with-r---a-fast-growing-language-for-statistics-forecasting-and-graphs

In the above article you can read about the language R, courses, groups that meet up to learn about stats tech, weather and it's visual representation and more. Be sure to check it out!

What started off as something funny has led me to the very serious, and that is the value and importance of visualizing your data and being open to diversity, for life or work.

Hope you enjoyed the pie chart! I am sure it was a tasty byte ;)

:)

Pioneers in Engineering

Hello World!

While doing some research for an engineering article I'm writing, I found this fun piece on 5 women pioneers in engineering. Did you know that sattelites stay in orbit longer thanks to the inventions of Yvonne Brill? Or that Lillian Moller Gilbreth engineered the art of living? To learn more about these and other innovative engineers check out 

https://www.asme.org/engineering-topics/articles/history-of-mechanical-engineering/5-women-pioneers-in-engineering

Have a STEMtastic day!

:)

I = mr^2 or the physics of ballet

Hello World!

I recently aquired these fabulous ballet flats (on sale!) for everyday street wear and it made me wonder about the physics of ballet shoes and ballet in general. I found this great website that applies and explains ballet moves in mathematical terms, www.unc.edu/~shahk/Sites/Site/Welcome.html

I encourage you to check it out as it was quite enjoyable to read. Each tab on the page explains a different element of ballet from the shoes to the graceful (and illusory!) leaps. 

 For even more details and some great references check out this website http://www.hep.uiuc.edu/home/g-gollin/dance/dance_physics.html 

If you want to read about Yale professors who put the calculations in choreography check out http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/may-2014/the-physics-of-dance 

And if you want to read even more, check out this student paper

http://arxiv.org/pdf/0706.2717.pdf or this book (available on Amazon)

As for me I think it is time to practice rotational inertia. 

Happy STEM dancing! 

:)