mathematics

Judith Roitman

Judith Roitman 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 Judith Roitman rather than just read about it. In short: Judith A. "Judy" Roitman (born November 12, 1945) is a mathematician, a retired professor at the University of Kansas. She specializes in set theory, topology, Boolean algebras, and mathematics education.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Judith A. "Judy" Roitman (born November 12, 1945) is a mathematician, a retired professor at the University of Kansas. She specializes in set theory, topology, Boolean algebras, and mathematics education.

Biography Roitman was born in 1945 in New York City. She attended Oberlin College, followed by Sarah Lawrence College, graduating in 1966 with a degree in English literature. Next, she became interested in mathematical linguistics. As she had little formal mathematical education, Roitman started taking mathematics classes at the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco State University. She had enjoyed mathematics as a high school student and found her interest renewed. In 1969 she started graduate studies in mathematics at Berkeley. During graduate school, she spent some time teaching mathematics in elementary schools as a Community Teaching Fellow with Project SEED. Roitman received her Ph.D. in 1974 from UC Berkeley with a thesis in topology; her thesis advisor was Robert M. Solovay. She taught at Wellesley College for three years, then spent a semester at the Institute for Advanced Study. She has been at the University of Kansas since then. She has been involved in the field of mathematics education for much of her career, running workshops for elementary school teachers and high school teachers and observing them in the classroom. She has encouraged individual mathematicians and the mathematical community at large to get involved and take mathematics education more seriously. She was in the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics writing group that produced Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. Dismayed at the politicization of U.S. mathematics education, Roitman has insisted, "There is no math war." Roitman has been active in the Association for Women in Mathematics since its early years, and she served as president for the term 1979–1981. She has been a Zen Buddhist since 1976, and is currently the guiding teacher of the Kansas Zen Center, of which she and her husband Stanley Lombardo were founding members. Roitman is also a poet. Her poetry has appeared in a number of magazines, seven chapbooks, and two books.

Awards and honors In 1996, she received the Louise Hay Award as recognition for her role as a math educator. In 2012 she became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society. In 2017, she was selected as a fellow of the Association for Women in Mathematics in the inaugural class.

Selected publications Introduction to Modern Set Theory. Wiley-Interscience. January 16, 1990. ISBN 0-471-63519-7. Roitman, Judith (Winter 1992). "The Uses of Set Theory". The Mathematical Intelligencer. 14 (1). Springer Verlag: 63–69. doi:10.1007/BF03024144. S2CID 120746653. "Beyond the Math Wars" (PDF). Contemporary Issues in Mathematics Education. MSRI Publications 36, Cambridge University Press. 1999. pp. 123–134. ISBN 0-521-65255-3. Retrieved January 18, 2008. Introduction to Modern Set Theory, Revised Edition. Virginia Commonwealth University. December 6, 2011. ISBN 978-0982406-24-3.

Selected poetry Slippage. Potes & Poets Press. 1999. ISBN 0-937013-97-8. No Face. First Intensity Press. July 1, 2008. ISBN 978-1-889960-17-3. Slackline. Hank's Original Loose Gravel Press. 2012. Furnace Mountain Poems. Omerta. 2013. Archived from the original on January 19, 2019. Retrieved January 17, 2019. Two: (Ghazals). Horse Less Press. 2014. Retrieved January 17, 2019. Ku: a thumb book. Airfoil Press. 2015. Retrieved January 17, 2019. Provisional. Dancing Girl Press. 2018. Retrieved January 17, 2019. Roswell. Theenk Books. October 18, 2018. ISBN 978-0988389-15-1. Retrieved January 17, 2019.

References

External links Roitman's Blog

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Judith Roitman

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Judith Roitman 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 Judith Roitman 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 Judith Roitman 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 Judith Roitman

In research: Judith Roitman 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 Judith Roitman 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: Judith Roitman is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1945 births, 20th-century American Buddhists, 20th-century American mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Judith Roitman 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 Judith Roitman in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Judith Roitman in simple terms?

Why does Judith Roitman 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 Judith Roitman?

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 Judith Roitman.