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 Mathematician Katherine Johnson earned degrees in mathematics and French graduating summa cum laude. She was a math teacher for a while before she went to work for NASA. She made the navigation calculations for the missions of Alan Shepard and John Glenn, the Apollo 11 mission to the moon, and the Apollo 13 mission that returned safely after an accident. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and there is a research facility named in her honor at the NASA Langley Research Center in Virginia. The 2016 movie, Hidden Figures, tells the story of her amazing life as a mathematician. In 2021, a spacecraft named after her launched from Virginia and traveled to the International Space Station.
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 Mathematician J. Ernest Wilkins, Jr. was born in Chicago and entered the University of Chicago to study mathematics at the age of 13. He was the youngest student ever to attend the university. He received his bachelor's degree at the age of 16, his master's degree at the age of 17, and his Ph.D. at the age of 19. He also earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He did much research in the fields of engineering and nuclear physics.
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 Carl Sandburg's biography of Abraham Lincoln (born February 12, 1809) recounts how, when a young lawyer trying to sharpen his reasoning skills, the largely unschooled Lincoln "...bought the Elements of Euclid, a book twenty-three centuries old...[It] went into his carpetbag as he went out on the circuit. At night...he read Euclid by the light of a candle after others had dropped off to sleep." This story made it into the 2012 movie Lincoln. Daniel Day-Lewis won his third Academy Award for best actor for his performance. |
| Do you know why February 15th is known as Decimal Day? |
 "The book of nature is written in the language of mathematics."-Galileo Galilei (Born February 15, 1564) |
Wind Chill is a measure of the chilling effect experienced when strong winds are combined with cold temperatures.  The wind chill temperature is what the temperature "feels like" to people and animals during cold weather. It does not apply to plants or vegetation because they are not warm-blooded. We all know that a windy winter day can feel much colder than a calm one, although the air temperature may be exactly the same. The term "wind chill" was first coined back in 1939 and a formula to calculate it was published in 1945. In 2001, the U.S. and Canadian Weather Services replaced that formula with the one shown below. The new formula to calculate wind chill (WC) uses many algebra concepts.
WC = 35.74 + 0.6215T - 35.75V0.16 + 0.4275TV0.16 where T = temperature (°F) and V = wind speed (MPH). For example, if it is 30°F and the wind is 20MPH, it feels like 17°F. |
 "If you are going through a tough time,keep going." -Winston Churchill |
 World Language students, try reading this site in Spanish or French. |
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