Treasures of Cambridge #23 Treasures of Cambridge #23

Molly Watson pictured in front of the vault in the former Bean Head’s Coffee House has lived in the Cambridge area for almost 16 years, which accounts for her entire life.

When I asked Molly to tell me about herself, she instantly responded, “What is there to tell? I am a Math geek and it works. I know the first forty-two digits of Pi by heart and I know the derivation of the quadratic formula front and back off the top of my head.” She recently found out that the 42nd digit of Pi is the key that unlocks secrets in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Her passion for numbers accounts for an interest in the making and breaking of codes and may lead her to a career as a cryptologist some day.

Besides math, she loves to work with computers and “argue politics,” being a member of both a model Congress and UN. She is always thinking about the fate of our country and the planet and about how to get the US out of some of the negative predicaments she sees the present administration has gotten us into. She had aspirations in her younger years to become the first female president, but now feels as though the system is too corrupt and she would rather not get involved on that level with the politics of power.

She loves learning yet feels disappointed by NYS focus on state testing. She feels “No Child Left Behind” is a recipe for disaster, doesn’t work, and alienates both teachers and students from their main jobs, which are learning and teaching.

Molly’s prop is a dog tag given her “by the first boy labeled… “The Boy.” It was a blind date that started off interesting, and later became the date from hell. It was quite funny actually; I was going to send it back to him, but then said to myself, “naw, why bother!”

Molly wants to be remembered by “changing mathematical law, discover something new in mathematics, like Feigenbaum’s number.”