astronomy

Judita Cofman

Judita Cofman is a astronomy 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 Judita Cofman rather than just read about it. In short: Judita Cofman (1936–2001) was a Yugoslav-German mathematician, the first person to earn a doctorate in mathematics at the University of Novi Sad. She was known for her work in finite geometry and for her books aimed at young mathematicians.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Judita Cofman (1936–2001) was a Yugoslav-German mathematician, the first person to earn a doctorate in mathematics at the University of Novi Sad. She was known for her work in finite geometry and for her books aimed at young mathematicians.

Early life and education Cofman was born on 4 June 1936 to a prominent ethnically German but Hungarian-speaking family (variously spelled Cofman or Zoffmann) in Vršac, then in Yugoslavia and now part of Serbia. Her father was a brewer, but the family brewery (founded in 1859) was closed by the occupying Germans in World War II and then nationalized by the newly-established communist government of Yugoslavia in 1946. Her grandfather was a mathematics teacher, and her uncle was the town mayor. Growing up in Vršac, Cofman learned Hungarian, Serbian, German, Russian, English, and later French and Italian; her facility with languages became useful for her mathematics studies. In 1954, she joined the first cohort of mathematics students in the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad, now part of the University of Novi Sad. She finished her studies there in 1958 and became a high school mathematics teacher in Zrenjanin. She returned to Novi Sad (newly founded as a university) in 1960, as an assistant to geometer Mileva Prvanović and in the same year was responsible for the university's first mathematics publication, of her lecture notes on straightedge and compass constructions. She traveled to Rome in 1961 to work with Lucio Lombardo-Radice then, returning to Novi Sad in 1963, defended her Ph.D., the first mathematical doctorate at Novi Sad. Her dissertation was O konačnim nedezargovim ravnima generisanim četvorotemenikom [Finite Non-Desarguesian Planes Generated by Quadrangles].

Career After completing her doctorate, Cofman did postdoctoral research as a Humboldt Fellow at Goethe University Frankfurt. She became a lecturer at Imperial College London in 1965 and then, after a year visiting the University of Perugia, took a position at the University of Tübingen in Germany. In the mid-1970s she moved to Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, at a time when her interests began to shift as well, from finite geometry to mathematics education. At Mainz, she became the doctoral advisor of mathematics popularizer Albrecht Beutelspacher, through whom she has many academic descendants. She left the university in 1978, and became a mathematics teacher at Putney High School in London from 1978 to 1993. It was during this time that she wrote her books for young mathematicians. In 1993 she returned to German academia as a professor of mathematics education at the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg. She retired from Erlangen and moved to the University of Debrecen, in Hungary, in 2001, but died on 19 December 2001, shortly after starting her new position there.

Books Cofman was the author of:

Problems for Young Mathematicians (Pullen, 1981) What to Solve?: Problems and Suggestions for Young Mathematicians (Clarendon Press, 1990) Numbers and Shapes Revisited: More Problems for Young Mathematicians (Clarendon Press, 1995) Einblicke in die Geschichte der Mathematik [Insights into the History of Mathematics] (Two volumes, Spektrum, 1999 and 2001)

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Judita Cofman

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Judita Cofman claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, 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 Judita Cofman 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 Judita Cofman 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 Judita Cofman

In research: Judita Cofman appears in astronomy 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 Judita Cofman 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: Judita Cofman is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1936 births, 2001 deaths, Academic staff of the University of Debrecen, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Judita Cofman 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 Judita Cofman in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Judita Cofman 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 Judita Cofman out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Judita Cofman in simple terms?

Why does Judita Cofman matter?

Because it connects several astronomy 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 Judita Cofman?

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 Judita Cofman.