mathematics

Mary Margaret Speer

Mary Margaret Speer 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 Mary Margaret Speer rather than just read about it. In short: Mary Margaret Speer (March 27, 1906 in Midway, Pennsylvania – November 23, 1966 in Pittsburgh) was an American mathematician and university instructor and one of the few women to earn a PhD in math before World War II. Biography Mary Margaret Taylor was the only daughter and third of four children born to Hallie Blanche Virginia Criss and Albert Aaron Taylor.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Mary Margaret Speer (March 27, 1906 in Midway, Pennsylvania – November 23, 1966 in Pittsburgh) was an American mathematician and university instructor and one of the few women to earn a PhD in math before World War II.

Biography Mary Margaret Taylor was the only daughter and third of four children born to Hallie Blanche Virginia Criss and Albert Aaron Taylor. Mary completed the three-year curriculum at Midway High School from 1918 to 1921. For her last year, she attended Carnegie High School just west of Pittsburgh where she was chosen to receive a four-year college scholarship based on an annual competitive examination sponsored by nearby Washington County, Pennsylvania. From 1922 to 1926 she undertook a double major in mathematics and Latin offered by the University of Pittsburgh. After receiving her honors BA degree in 1926, she was elected to the Sigma Kappa Phi honor society, a national foreign language honorary fraternity, and the Women's Studies Honor Society in Pittsburgh. From 1926 to 1930, while Taylor was working as a teaching assistant at the University of Pittsburgh, she completed her master's degree in 1928 with a thesis titled: A note on the solution in series of the general homogeneous linear differential equation. She attended summer programs at the University of Chicago during the summer of 1928 and then continued her work toward her PhD at Pittsburgh. From 1930 to 1934 Taylor taught math courses at University's regional campus in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, before moving back to the university's main campus in Pittsburgh as a graduate assistant and she finished her PhD studies. Taylor received her doctorate in 1935 with the dissertation: Reciprocals of Certain Curves and Surfaces with Respect to a Space Cubic Curve directed by Forest Almos Foraker. In 1935, she married the mathematician and lawyer Eugene R. Speer (1903–1978), with whom she had three children, all of whom also went on to study mathematics. For the school year 1936–1937, she is listed in the university catalogue as a graduate assistant using her new name Mary Margaret Speer. From 1937 through 1943, she is listed as an instructor of mathematics but she left the university after being told that men with less experience were receiving promotions to associate professor ahead of her because "the men had families to support and needed the money." This occurred even though Mary and her husband were already the parents of one child by that time. Speer was an active member and administrator of the Girl Scouts of Allegheny County, from the early 1950s until her death of cancer in Pittsburgh in 1966 at the age of 60.

Selected publications

Publication 1929: [Taylor, M. M.] (Translator from the Latin) On the theory of combinations, by Jacques Bernoulli. In A Source Book in Mathematics, ed. D. E. Smith. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co. Reprint: 1959. New York: Dover Publications.

Abstracts 1937: Reciprocals with respect to a space cubic. Amer. Math. Monthly 44:187 #1. Presented to the MAA, Beaver Falls, PA, 26 Oct 1935. 1939: Types of curvature of curves and surfaces. Amer. Math. Monthly 46:536 #4. Presented to the MAA, Greenville, PA, 13 May 1939.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mary Margaret Speer

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mary Margaret Speer 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 Mary Margaret Speer 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 Mary Margaret Speer 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 Mary Margaret Speer

In research: Mary Margaret Speer 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 Mary Margaret Speer 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: Mary Margaret Speer is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1906 births, 1996 deaths, 20th-century American educators, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mary Margaret Speer 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 Mary Margaret Speer in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Mary Margaret Speer in simple terms?

Why does Mary Margaret Speer 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 Mary Margaret Speer?

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 Mary Margaret Speer.