Williams Professor Shows How Math Counts in the Winter Olympics
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Williams College mathematician Edward Burger is featured in NBC News and National Science Foundation partnership "Where Science Meets the Olympics," a 16-part video series, which explain the science behind Winter Olympian performers.The series is intended to "create a spark in places that will help people see how science makes a difference." NBC hopes the journalism and storytelling will entertain as well as teach the science.
Each five-minute episode investigate topics such as aerial physics in aerial skiing, friction in curling, and the concept of elastic collision in hockey, among many others.
Burger’s segment "Mathletes" explains how math counts "in every jump, every spin, every move the athletes make on snow or ice."
Burger shows and explains how from simple arithmetic to calculus, math is part of every move made, race won, goal shot and can help athletes achieve better results. One of Burger’s examples is hockey, where the success of a shot or goal depends on the angle of axis to the net.
The series aired on the "Today Show" and will continue showing throughout the 2010 Winter Olympics coverage on NBC-TV as well as local affiliates and other NBC networks (including MSNBC-TV and The Weather Channel). Watch "Mathletes" online at www.nbclearn.com/olympics.
Burger, professor of mathematics and Gaudino Scholar at Williams, recently won the Baylor University Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching, the only national teaching award given by an institution for higher education to an individual for exceptional teaching.
His other awards include the 2007 Award of Excellence from Technology & Learning magazine, the 2006 Reader’s Digest "100 Best of America" as best math teacher, and four awards for distinguished scholarship and college teaching of mathematics from the Mathematical Association of America.
Burger’s scholarly work includes more than 30 research articles and 21 books and CD-ROM texts that he has written and co-written and which include "The Heart of Mathematics: An Invitation to Effective Thinking" and "Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz: Making Light of Weighty Ideas."
He also has written and appeared in hundreds of educational videos, including the 24-lecture video series, "Zero to Infinity: A History of Numbers" and "An Introduction to Number Theory" in "The Great Courses" series through The Teaching Company.
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