Home / Women / Other Women We Love, 2008

November 3, 2008, 7:00 AM

Danica McKellar, Our Favorite Mathematician

When you weren't looking, Winnie from The Wonder Years grew up, learned advanced calculus, wrote a book about math, and looks like this...

By A.J. Jacobs

More from this author

Danica McKellar

Larry Armstrong /

When assembling a list of the hottest female mathematicians in history, you've got the obvious, like Sofia Kovalevskaya, the nineteenth-century Russian who did important work with irregular solids. Our pick? Danica McKellar. She played Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years and now writes best-selling books for high school girls about math--the latest called Kiss My Math.

ESQ: You cowrote a math paper when you were a student at UCLA. Remind me of the name.

DM: "Percolation and Gibbs States Multiplicity for Ferromagnetic Ashkin--Teller Models on Z2."

ESQ: Oh, yes. It's about...

DM: Coffeemakers? No. It does have to do with magnetic material. And temperature of magnetic material.

ESQ: Are there any other hidden celebrity geniuses? I know that Brian May, Queen's guitarist, just finished his Ph.D. in astrophysics.

DM: I know Natalie Port-man did a paper on psychiatry or behavioral science of some sort. Mayim Bialik of Blossom is doing, like, neuroscience.

ESQ: You guys should do a calendar or something. What about math movies? Did you see A Beautiful Mind?

DM: Very entertaining, but they cut those math-class scenes too short. They just start to teach something on the board, and I'm like, "Wait! They're gonna get to the good part." And then cut. It was like that in Good Will Hunting, too. Pi was kind of interesting.

ESQ: Favorite mathematician in history?

DM: Nothing against Einstein, but he did all his stuff early on and then froze up, whereas Benjamin Franklin kept going. He wasn't intimidated by his own success. He wasn't exactly a mathematician, but he was a scientist. And I'm so fascinated by how open his mind was.

ESQ: Your favorite number?

DM: Three. It's the trinity. I was born on January 3 also, so I kind of feel like it's my number. I think it's really pretty.

ESQ: What's the probability of an Esquire subscriber getting a date with you?

DM: Here's an equation: Chances of getting a date with Danica McKellar = 3(integrity) + 2(wit) + 3(passion) ÷ (miles you live from L. A.) + (# of bad habits) + 85.


Post Your Comment