High-flying functions: Marching Jayhawks’ star twirler sees math in her pastime

Engagement 1 Minute

From the YouTube description:

As an internationally competitive baton twirler in Toronto, Canada, Nicole Johnson impressed audiences with the degree of difficulty found in her acrobatic routines. As a Jayhawk, she found a way to express that complexity using another talent — math. Nicole Johnson received an Undergraduate Research Award for “Baton Twirling into the Fourth Dimension.” Working with associate professor Estela Gavosto, she translated her astonishing performances into equally beautiful graphs. “Just being able to show that there’s this different side of math than what you normally see — that is one of the really cool outcomes of this project,” says Johnson, who graduated in May 2019 with honors in both mathematics and engineering physics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peGl6N7SqjY

Published by John Quintanilla

I'm a Professor of Mathematics and a University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of North Texas. For eight years, I was co-director of Teach North Texas, UNT's program for preparing secondary teachers of mathematics and science.

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