Splash Biography

From the theory of continuous symmetry to the foundations of geometric analysis, from the development of the nuclear shell model to the experiments that proved the violation of parity conservation, women have always been there. There are more obstacles for us to remember them, but we want not only to remember them but also to understand specifically what they have discovered. In this course, we will focus on learning the mathematical and physical theories and experiments developed by women scientists. You will not only learn their names, but also explore the interesting and inspiring mathematical and physical concepts they have contributed.

Enrico Fermi had a penchant for making "Fermi estimates"--for example, he famously estimated the power of the first atomic bomb test by dropping a piece of paper and seeing how far it flew. Thus began a whole category of order-of-magnitude estimation questions called Fermi questions. Some famous Fermi questions include: How long would it take to read all of Wikipedia? How many piano tuners are there in Chicago? How many intelligent civilizations are there in the galaxy? Want to impress your friends by doing back of the envelope calculations? If we ask you: determine (without googling anything!) the distance from Pluto to the Sun divided by the width of a single HIV virus--are you confident you'll be able to get an answer accurate to within a factor of 10? Learn how to become a whiz at Fermi questions, join the class!