Enunciation

Observations and context

- Maria Goeppert was born in Katowice, Upper Silesia, then part of Germany. She was the second woman in history to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963.

- Although at the age of 24 she already had a PhD in physics, and despite having studied quantum mechanics with teachers such as Max Born, James Franck and Adolf Windaus, she was not able to get a paid job at any university. She worked most of her life in different American universities, free of pay. "Volunteer", "intern" and "research associate" were some of the job titles that Maria Goeppert Mayer received over 30 years leading scientific investigations that would award her the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963.

- She did research "just for the pleasure of doing physics", she wrote in her biography, published by the Nobel prize. She did not get a renowned and paid job until the age of 54, in 1960: a full-time position as a professor of physics at the University of California, in San Diego. 

- At the same time as Maria, important mathematicians were developing their work, such as Hilda Geiringer (1893-1973) in statistics and probability; Mary Lucy Cartwright (1900-1998) in analysis; Olga Taussky Todd (1906-1995) in number theory and matrix theory; Marjorie Lee Brown 1914-1979) in linear and matrix algebra; Antonia Ferrín (1914-2009) in astronomy, 1914-2009; María J. Wonanburger Planells (1927-2014) in group theory and algebra; and Irène Joliot-Curie (1897-1956) in physics and chemistry.

- Among her predecessors, in the field of statistics and probability, we find Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), known for applying statistics to nursing and creator of sector diagrams. In the branch of physics, to which she dedicated herself, Marie Curie (1867-1934) was her predecessor. In mathematics and computer science, Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) stands out.

Description

In this activity we will work on the concept of probability of equiprobable events with a practical experiment that the students will conduct. We will calculate the probability empirically from the relative frequencies.

Answer

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