mathematics

Helen Calkins

Helen Calkins is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Helen Calkins rather than just read about it. In short: Helen Calkins (1893–1970) was an American mathematician and professor, and one of the few women to earn a PhD in mathematics in the United States before World War II. Biography Helen Calkins was born on October 20, 1893, to Anna Burns Schermerhorn and Addison Niles Calkins, in Quincy, Illinois.

Key takeaways

Helen Calkins belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Helen Calkins to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Helen Calkins from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Helen Calkins (1893–1970) was an American mathematician and professor, and one of the few women to earn a PhD in mathematics in the United States before World War II.

Biography Helen Calkins was born on October 20, 1893, to Anna Burns Schermerhorn and Addison Niles Calkins, in Quincy, Illinois. The eldest of two daughters, she was a student at Quincy High School from 1908–1912 and then she attended Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, starting in 1912, graduating in 1916 with a special honor in mathematics. Her first job was teaching math at a junior high school in Quincy. In 1917 she taught at the senior high school in Jacksonville, Illinois for a year before returning to Knox College as a math instructor 1918–1920. In February 1932 at Columbia University (1920–1921) she earned her master's degree with the thesis: The unity in mathematics, as illustrated by a certain differential equation. In February 1932, Calkins was awarded her PhD from Cornell; her advisors were: Charles F. Roos and David Clinton Gillespie. Her dissertation was titled, Some Implicit Functional Theorems, which concerned "a problem of maximizing a functional not of the ordinary calculus of variations type." Roos referred to it writing "I think that Miss Calkins' thesis is of unusual interest." Calkins joined the math department at the Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham University) in Pittsburgh, where she was usually the only member of the mathematics department that she headed. She enjoyed service on faculty committees, especially those concerning course curriculum and the library. With the start of World War II in 1941, Calkins became a statistician in engineering defense training at the Pennsylvania State College. In 1943, she spent a year at the University of Minnesota, to teach math to pre-flight cadets. Calkins retired as professor emeritus in 1957, from the school then known as Chatham College. Helen Calkins died on June 17, 1970, at the Good Samaritan Home in Quincy, Illinois of heart disease. She was 76 years of age.

Memberships According to Judy Green, Calkins belonged to the Delta Delta Delta social sorority, the Pi Lambda Theta education honor and professional association, the College Club of Pittsburgh, and the Daughters of the American Revolution as well as several professional societies.

American Mathematical Society Mathematical Association of America Sigma Delta Epsilon American Association of University Professors Phi Mu Epsilon

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Helen Calkins

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Helen Calkins claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Helen Calkins before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Helen Calkins ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Helen Calkins

In research: Helen Calkins appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Helen Calkins in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Helen Calkins is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1893 births, 1970 deaths, 20th-century American educators, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Helen Calkins outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Helen Calkins in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Helen Calkins means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Helen Calkins out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Helen Calkins in simple terms?

Helen Calkins (1893–1970) was an American mathematician and professor, and one of the few women to earn a PhD in mathematics in the United States before World War II. Biography Helen Calkins was born on October 20, 1893, to Anna Burns Schermerhorn and Addison Niles Calkins, in Quincy, Illinois.

Why does Helen Calkins matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Helen Calkins?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Helen Calkins.