mathematics

Sue Whitesides

Sue Whitesides 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 Sue Whitesides rather than just read about it. In short: Sue Hays Whitesides is a Canadian mathematician and computer scientist, a professor emeritus of computer science and the chair of the computer science department at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. Her research specializations include computational geometry and graph drawing.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Sue Hays Whitesides is a Canadian mathematician and computer scientist, a professor emeritus of computer science and the chair of the computer science department at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. Her research specializations include computational geometry and graph drawing.

Education and career Whitesides received her Ph.D. in mathematics in 1975 from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, under the supervision of Richard Bruck. Before joining the University of Victoria faculty, she taught at Dartmouth College and McGill University; at McGill, she was director of the School of Computer Science from 2005 to 2008.

Service Whitesides was the program chair for the 1998 International Symposium on Graph Drawing and program co-chair for the 2012 Symposium on Computational Geometry.

References

External links Sue Whitesides at DBLP Bibliography Server

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sue Whitesides

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sue Whitesides 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 Sue Whitesides 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 Sue Whitesides 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 Sue Whitesides

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

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Sue Whitesides in simple terms?

Why does Sue Whitesides 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 Sue Whitesides?

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 Sue Whitesides.