Mathematics: Useful Links

Math With Bad Drawings is one of the top math blogs to follow. This blog, written and drawn by math teacher Ben Orlin, uses stick figures and humorous text to explain math concepts. The drawings catch everyone's attention. It's incredible how he uses the drawing as a metaphor for so many things. It isn't overly technical, but it does cover a wide range of mathematics-related topics, such as math education, math culture, current events in the math world, math humor, and so on.

She is a freelance mathematician, a Mathletics coach at the Advanced Math and Sciences Academy in Massachusetts, and a math research coordinator at MIT. Although the website seems outdated, it is still highly active. From algorithms, sequences, statistics, and even math humor, there are plenty of categories to choose from.

Katherine Johnson began work at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the predecessor to NASA, in 1953. She analyzed test flight data and helped calculate the trajectory of the first American manned space flight, Alan Shepard's 1961 trip. In 1960, she became the first woman in the Space Flight Division to coauthor a published technical report.
In the report Johnson and engineer Ted Skopinski work through some of the key calculations needed to make sure an orbiting space capsule passes over a specified latitude and longitude on the Earth. Such calculations were essential so that the Navy could be at the right place to rescue the astronaut once he splashed down in the ocean and are discussed in the movie "Hidden Figures" when Johnson's character is first allowed to attend a daily briefing.