astronomy

Nancy Blachman

Nancy Blachman 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 Nancy Blachman rather than just read about it. In short: Nancy Blachman (born 1956 in Palo Alto, CA) is an American educator, supporter of recreational mathematics and mathematical outreach, software book author, and supporter of indie documentary films. In 2007, she founded the Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival (JRMF), which has grown into a successful math enrichment enterprise for teenagers in the USA and beyond.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Nancy Blachman (born 1956 in Palo Alto, CA) is an American educator, supporter of recreational mathematics and mathematical outreach, software book author, and supporter of indie documentary films. In 2007, she founded the Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival (JRMF), which has grown into a successful math enrichment enterprise for teenagers in the USA and beyond. She is a long time supporter of the educational foundation Gathering 4 Gardner. She is a former chair and remains on the advisory board of Berkeley’s Industrial Engineering and Operations Research Department (IEOR).

Early life and education Nancy Blachman was born in 1956 in Palo Alto, California, her father Nelson being an electrical engineer. The family spent some time living in Spain in the 1960s, and Nancy's interest in mathematics began during high school back in Palo Alto when she took a course based on George Polya's Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning. She was also inspired by the mathematics contest produced by Saint Mary's College of California then popular with secondary schools throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. She did undergraduate work at University of California, San Diego (1974 to 1976), got honours B.Sc. in applied mathematics from the University of Birmingham in the UK (1978), an M.S. in operations research from University of California, Berkeley (1979) and an M.S. in computer science at Stanford University (1988).

Mathematics in education Blachman taught a course in problem solving with Mathematica at Stanford from 1990 to 1997. In 2004 she created Google Guide, an online interactive tutorial and reference about the capabilities of Google. In 2005 while attending an education forum that promoted STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math] she remembered how the Saint Mary's College Mathematics Contest had inspired her as a student. Working with Joshua Zucker and Jim Sotiros she decided to revive the structure and spirit of this long defunct competition. This led to the founding of the Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival in 2007. JRMF events now occur throughout the United States and have reached more than 100,000 students worldwide. Blachman has been a board member of Gathering 4 Gardner since 2008, served as its chair from 2012 to 2020, and is currently board president. She is the president and founder of Variable Symbols, a company that provides training, books, and tools to make complex software easier to use.

Indie documentary films Blachman has been working since 2015 with filmmakers to shine a light on people in difficult situations, to uplift marginalized voices, humanize them, and make their stories accessible—with the aim of encouraging viewers to take action. Documentaries she has supported include Aftershock, Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse, Ailey, Athlete A, Counted Out, Crip Camp, Dark Money, Free for All, Patrice: The Movie, The Fight, and The Social Dilemma.

Personal life On January 1, 1999, she married David desJardins. They have two children, Sarah and Louis.

Books The Mathematica Graphics Guidebook, by Cameron Smith and Nancy Blachman, Addison Wesley (1995), ISBN 0201532808 Mathematica: A Practical Approach, by Nancy Blachman and Colin Williams, Prentice-Hall (1993) ISBN 0135638267 Mathematica quick reference, version 2, by Nancy Blachman, Addison-wesley (1992), ISBN 0201628805 Maple V Quick Reference, by N. Blachman and M. Mossinghoff, Brooks/Cole Pub. Co (1992)

References

External links An Interview with Nancy Blachman by Gord! Hamilton - YouTube

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Nancy Blachman

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Nancy Blachman 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 Nancy Blachman 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 Nancy Blachman 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 Nancy Blachman

In research: Nancy Blachman 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 Nancy Blachman 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: Nancy Blachman is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1956 births, Alumni of the University of Birmingham, American documentary film producers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Nancy Blachman 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 Nancy Blachman in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Nancy Blachman in simple terms?

Why does Nancy Blachman 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 Nancy Blachman?

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 Nancy Blachman.