computer science

Phyllis Fox

Phyllis Fox is a computer science 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 Phyllis Fox rather than just read about it. In short: Phyllis Ann Fox (March 13, 1923 – May 23, 2017) was an American mathematician, electrical engineer and computer scientist. Early life and education Fox was born on March 13, 1923, and raised in Colorado.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Phyllis Ann Fox (March 13, 1923 – May 23, 2017) was an American mathematician, electrical engineer and computer scientist.

Early life and education Fox was born on March 13, 1923, and raised in Colorado. She did her undergraduate studies at Wellesley College, earning a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics in 1944. From 1944 until 1946 she worked for General Electric as an operator for their differential analyser project. She earned a second baccalaureate, a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering, from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1948. She then moved on to graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning an Master of Science in 1949 in electrical engineering, and a doctorate (Sc.D.) in mathematics in 1954 under the supervision of Chia-Chiao Lin. During this time, she also worked as an assistant on the Whirlwind project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, under Jay Wright Forrester.

Later career From 1954 to 1958, Fox worked on the numerical solution of partial differential equations on the Univac, for the Computing Center of the United States Atomic Energy Commission at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University. In 1958, following her husband, she returned to Jay Wright Forrester's system dynamics research group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she became part of the team that wrote the DYNAMO programming language. She then became a collaborator on the first LISP interpreter, and was the main author of the first LISP manual. In 1963, she moved from Massachusetts Institute of Technology to the Newark College of Engineering, where she became a full professor in 1972. During this time, she also consulted for Bell Labs, where she moved in 1973 to work on a highly portable numerics library (PORT). She retired from Bell Labs in 1984.

Personal life and death Fox married George Sternlieb. They moved to Short Hills, New Jersey in 1949. Fox died on May 23, 2017, at the age of 94.

Recognition Fox was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1986.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Phyllis Fox

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Phyllis Fox claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, 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 Phyllis Fox 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 Phyllis Fox 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 Phyllis Fox

In research: Phyllis Fox appears in computer science 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 Phyllis Fox 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: Phyllis Fox is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1923 births, 2017 deaths, 21st-century American women, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Phyllis Fox 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 Phyllis Fox in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Phyllis Fox in simple terms?

Phyllis Ann Fox (March 13, 1923 – May 23, 2017) was an American mathematician, electrical engineer and computer scientist. Early life and education Fox was born on March 13, 1923, and raised in Colorado.

Why does Phyllis Fox matter?

Because it connects several computer science 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 Phyllis Fox?

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 Phyllis Fox.