mathematics

Sarah Flannery

Sarah Flannery 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 Sarah Flannery rather than just read about it. In short: Sarah Flannery (born 1982, County Cork, Ireland) is an Irish mathematician who was, at sixteen years old, the winner of the 1999 Esat Young Scientist Exhibition for her development of the Cayley–Purser algorithm, based on work she had done with researchers at Baltimore Technologies during a brief internship there. The project, entitled "Cryptography – A new algorithm versus the RSA", also won her the EU Young Scient…

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Sarah Flannery (born 1982, County Cork, Ireland) is an Irish mathematician who was, at sixteen years old, the winner of the 1999 Esat Young Scientist Exhibition for her development of the Cayley–Purser algorithm, based on work she had done with researchers at Baltimore Technologies during a brief internship there. The project, entitled "Cryptography – A new algorithm versus the RSA", also won her the EU Young Scientist of the Year Award in 1999.

Biography Flannery's education included a primary all-girls school and secondary education at Scoil Mhuire Gan Smál in Blarney. Following the competition win, in 2001 Flannery co-authored In Code with her father, mathematician David Flannery (1952-2023). It tells the story of the making and breaking of the Cayley-Purser algorithm, as well as the enjoyment she got from solving mathematical puzzles while growing up. She dedicates many of her accomplishments in the fields of mathematics and cryptography to her father's support during her childhood. She studied computer science at Peterhouse, a college of the University of Cambridge, graduating in 2003, and, as of 2006, worked for Electronic Arts as a software engineer. She worked at TirNua as a "Chief Scientist". She developed the virtual economy in a game and the back-end web services that powered the game features. She has also worked at RockYou, and several other institutions involved in software development and computer science. Before working at TirNua, Flannery was software engineer working directly with then Electronic Arts Worldwide Chief Technology Officer, Scott Cronce, and, later, with many fellow TirNua founders on her first virtual world. At EA, she successfully set up the EA Open Source program using the Essential Project. Flannery created data visualizations on software architecture and game content creation which were used to directly impact the quality of both. She also successfully ran and turned around the virtual economy within EA-Land (formerly The Sims Online). Previously, she worked on the technical and scientific computing software product Mathematica for Wolfram Research. The lights on St. Patrick's Street, one of the main thoroughfares of Flannery's home city of Cork, are named after her. Flannery is the sister of the singer and songwriter Mick Flannery.

Bibliography (2000) Sarah Flannery and David Flannery. In Code: A Mathematical Journey 271 pages, Pub. London : Profile, ISBN 1861972229 (2002) Sarah Flannery and David Flannery. In Code: A Mathematical Journey revised, 341 pages, Pub. Chapel Hill, N.C. : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, ISBN 1565123778 Cryptography – A new algorithm versus the RSA.

See also Intel International Science and Engineering Fair Linear algebra Cryptography Cayley–Purser algorithm

References

External links Mathematica and the Science of Secrecy Archived 8 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine Sarah's cracking algorithm homepage Archived 8 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine at TirNua

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sarah Flannery

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sarah Flannery 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 Sarah Flannery 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 Sarah Flannery 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 Sarah Flannery

In research: Sarah Flannery 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 Sarah Flannery 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: Sarah Flannery is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1982 births, 20th-century Irish mathematicians, 21st-century Irish mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sarah Flannery 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 Sarah Flannery in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Sarah Flannery in simple terms?

Why does Sarah Flannery 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 Sarah Flannery?

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 Sarah Flannery.