mathematics

Rachel Blodgett Adams

Rachel Blodgett Adams 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 Rachel Blodgett Adams rather than just read about it. In short: Rachel Blodgett Adams (October 13, 1894–January 22, 1982) was a pioneering American mathematician and one of the first women to earn a doctorate in mathematics at Radcliffe College in 1921. Biography Rachel Blodgett was born in Woburn, Massachusetts, the oldest of three children of Mabel Edith Owen and William Edward Blodgett, neither of whom attended college.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Rachel Blodgett Adams (October 13, 1894–January 22, 1982) was a pioneering American mathematician and one of the first women to earn a doctorate in mathematics at Radcliffe College in 1921.

Biography Rachel Blodgett was born in Woburn, Massachusetts, the oldest of three children of Mabel Edith Owen and William Edward Blodgett, neither of whom attended college. After graduating from Woburn High School in 1912, she entered Wellesley College and majored in mathematics and Latin. In addition to her studies, she joined the school's Shakespeare Society and performed cornet in the symphony orchestra. Academically, she was gifted and was named a Wellesley scholar in 1914 and a Durant scholar in 1915. Blodgett graduated with her bachelor's degree (B.A.) in 1916, and took courses at Harvard that summer. She then moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada to teach math at Miss Edgar's and Miss Cramp's School until 1918. She then returned to Massachusetts to further pursue her academic and professional endeavors.

Research For the next three years, Blodgett pursued advanced analysis at Radcliffe College, where she received an Edward Austin scholarship for at least two years and a Mary E. Horton fellowship for her final year. She worked with William Fogg Osgood and Oliver Dimon Kellogg. She earned her master's degree (M.A.) in 1919, and continued on to acquire her Ph.D. in mathematics in 1921. The following fall term, Dr. Blodgett took a teaching position at Wellesley. Rachel Blodgett married Harvard-trained mathematician Clarence Raymond Adams (1898–1965) on August 17, 1922, in Eden Park, in Providence, Rhode Island. (He was widely known as "C.R. Adams.") At the time, C. R. Adams was a Sheldon traveling fellow from Harvard, which allowed the newly married couple to travel extensively overseas with stops in Rome and Göttingen, Germany. Upon their return to the U.S. in 1923, the two mathematicians settled down in Providence, Rhode Island, where C. R. established his career at Brown University and eventually headed the math department there.

Blodgett, now known as Dr. Rachel Adams, moved forward with her research for a few years, according to mathematician Judy Green, "At least through the 1920s Adams continued her interest in integral equations. G. C. Evans of Rice Institute used information from her dissertation in an extensive review of a book on linear integral equations for the Monthly in 1927. She presented her results to the AMS in 1926 and published them in the American Journal in 1929."Adams also spent many years tutoring math students at her alma mater, Radcliffe College, from 1926 to 1941, with her friend and colleague Mary Graustein, Ph.D., with the goal of encouraging young female students. During World War II, Adams registered with the National Roster of Scientific and Specialized Personnel in Washington, D.C. to help with the war effort, but confirmation of any contribution she may have made as part of that program has not yet been found.

Later years During their marriage, Rachel and C. R. Adams traveled extensively by automobile in the United States and Europe. The couple never had children. He died in 1965 at the age of 67. She was 87 when she died in Providence, January 22, 1982.

Legacy In her estate plans, Rachel bequeathed to Wellesley College the Blodgett Fund, and stipulated that the fund's income be used for scholarships.

Memberships Phi Beta Kappa Sigma Xi American Mathematical Society Mathematical Association of America

Selected publications Blodgett, Rachel E. "Utilizing Industrial Ash to Stabilize Arsenic in Soil Contaminated From Chromated Copper Arsenate(CCA) Treated Wood." Masters Abstracts International. Vol. 50. No. 03. 2011. Blodgett, Rachel. The Determination of the Coefficients in Interpolation Formulae: And A Study of the Approximate Solution of Integral Equations. Dissertation, Radcliffe College, 1921. Adams, Rachel Blodgett (1929). On the Approximate Solution of Fredholm's Homogeneous Integral Equation. American Journal of Mathematics. 51(1): 139–148. doi:10.2307/2370568. ISSN 0002-9327.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Rachel Blodgett Adams

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Rachel Blodgett Adams 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 Rachel Blodgett Adams 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 Rachel Blodgett Adams 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 Rachel Blodgett Adams

In research: Rachel Blodgett Adams 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 Rachel Blodgett Adams 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: Rachel Blodgett Adams is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1894 births, 1972 deaths, 20th-century American mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Rachel Blodgett Adams 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.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Rachel Blodgett Adams” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Rachel Blodgett Adams in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Rachel Blodgett Adams in simple terms?

Rachel Blodgett Adams (October 13, 1894–January 22, 1982) was a pioneering American mathematician and one of the first women to earn a doctorate in mathematics at Radcliffe College in 1921. Biography Rachel Blodgett was born in Woburn, Massachusetts, the oldest of three children of Mabel Edith Owen…

Why does Rachel Blodgett Adams 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 Rachel Blodgett Adams?

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 Rachel Blodgett Adams.