Between Series, an Actress Became a Superstar (in Math)

The New York Times (via National Review's The Corner) ^ | 07/19/2005 | Kenneth Chang

[GreenLanternCorps]

On her Web site, Danica McKellar, the actress best known as Winnie Cooper on the television series "The Wonder Years," takes on questions that require more than a moment's thought to answer.

"If it takes Sam six minutes to wash a car by himself," one fan asked recently, "and it takes Brian eight minutes to wash a car by himself, how long will it take them to wash a car together?"

"This is a 'rates' problem," Ms. McKellar wrote in reply. "The key is to think about each of their 'car washing rates' and not the 'time' it takes them."

Ms. McKellar, now a semiregular on "The West Wing" playing a White House speechwriter, Elsie Snuffin, is probably the only person on prime-time television who moonlights as a cyberspace math tutor.

Her mathematics knowledge extends well beyond calculus. As a math major at the University of California, Los Angeles, she also took more esoteric classes, the ones with names like "complex analysis" and "real analysis," and she pondered making a career move to professional mathematician.

"I love that stuff," Ms. McKellar said last month during a visit to Manhattan after a play-reading in the Hamptons. Her conversation was peppered with terminology like "epsilons" and "limsups" (pronounced "lim soups").

"I love continuous functions and proving if functions are continuous or not," she said.

She may also be the only actress, now or ever, to prove a new mathematical theorem, one that bears her name. Certainly, she is the only theorem prover who appears wearing black lingerie in the July issue of Stuff magazine. Even in that interview, she mentioned math.

[TheBigB]

She's pretty cute now, though

All hail CD, Master of the Understatement! ;o)

[Fierce Allegiance]

LOL, exactly what I said. I'm an engineer, and now do estimating (SWAG, scientific wild ass guess to 2 decimal places)

[GreenLanternCorps]

"An engineer will answer that question in two seconds with "3 and a half minutes". And that is the right answer, because it is delivered in two seconds, and it is pretty darn close."

The engineers who designed the Tacoma Narrows Bridge?

[Ichneumon]

A consultant would say this question does not have all the necessary information because of missing variables such as how well the two people work together, the overlap variable, the car was supply limitations if two people are using the same supplies.. etc.. You'll need to pay a consultant about $75 an hour to calculate in all those factors.

Actually, you make a profound point. There's a *classic* book which covers this topic (and others) called "The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering", by Frederick P. Brooks. He points out that real-world projects seldom work out as neatly as implied by "man-month" calculations and other common management concepts, precisely because of complicating factors such as the ones you mention.

As he says by way of illustration, "it takes nine months to produce a baby, no matter how many women are assigned to the task."

[mnehring]

Sorry, what did you say, I was distracted by Post #41.

[gopwinsin04]

Shes a little stick of dynamite!

[Charles Henrickson]

If it takes Sam six minutes to wash a car by himself . . . and it takes Brian eight minutes to wash a car by himself, how long will it take them to wash a car together?

My first response was three-and-a-half minutes, since one guy can do half-a-car in three minutes and the other can do half-a-car in four minutes. But that would require them to divvy up the car just right, so the fast guy does a little more than the slow guy. But if they divvied up the car exactly in half, the answer would be four minutes. The fast guy would be done in three minutes, and then have to stand around for a minute waiting for the other guy to get done with his half.

[Ichneumon]

Oh, *MY*! All that and a math nerd too? Sold.

Now if I can just get my wife to approve...

[Constitution Day]

Oooh, I like.

I am suddenly feeling like I need to learn about ferromagnetic Ashkin–Teller models on Z2.

[ThinkDifferent]

I'd gladly examine her surface integrals.

[End Times Sentinel]

You know, you have a real double standard.  I didn't brow beat you when you put up that thread about how cute you though Josh Savino was.

 

Owl_Eagle

(If what I just wrote makes you sad or angry,

 it was probably sarcasm)

[fella]

Yeah,.......... but can she do a tax return that won't come back to haunt.

[ThinkDifferent]

There is a kind of peer pressure that forces them out early, otherwise there would be twice as many mathematicians in the world.

Probably not twice as many, because Larry Summers has a point. But yeah, there's definitely a large social factor. Ditto for computer science and IT in general.

[Old Professer]

3min 45sec unless they belong to a union; then it would take 14 minutes.

[Yo-Yo]

As he says by way of illustration, "it takes nine months to produce a baby, no matter how many women are assigned to the task."

Which is a canard, because it takes (at least) 81 months for one woman to produce 9 babies, but it takes only 9 months for 9 women to produce 9 babies.

It's all in the division of labor, so to speak...

[exnavychick]

She's also a math tutor. Fercryinoutloud, she proved a new theorem...I'd say that's pretty impressive.

Of course, I'm completely hopeless when it comes to mathematics, so perhaps I'm too easily swayed. (Since I'm a chick, pics of her in a bikini aren't going to cut it for me!)

[GreenLanternCorps]

So did that librarian ever have to give you an "F"?

[Aquinasfan]

I learned the other day that Jeff "Skunk" Baxter is also a defense department consultant regarding missile defense systems, or something like that. Apparently, he's self-taught. Some guys have all the talent.

[Lost Highway]

Punky Brewster

[TheBigB]

Did you guys know that Ashton Kutcher majored in biochemical engineering at college?