Chigwell School is proud to celebrate the latest academic achievement of Dr Johal, a valued member of our Mathematics Department, who has recently published a new article entitled “A New Proof for the Distance Between Skew Lines” in The College Mathematics Journal (21 January 2026).
Dr Johal brings an exceptional academic background to Chigwell School, having completed his BSc and MSc at Imperial College London before undertaking a PhD in Differential Geometry at the University of Oxford. He is also the author of the well-regarded textbook The Big Book of Real Analysis, published shortly after completing his doctoral studies. His latest contribution to the field demonstrates his continued dedication to advancing mathematical understanding and enriching the intellectual life of our school community.
On the recent publication of his research paper he wrote: "I wrote this research paper a while ago when I was working in academia before coming to work at Chigwell School. It was submitted to the College Mathematics Journal in 2024 and finally published this year. The journal is run by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) and specialises in the research on teaching and topics from the American undergraduate mathematics curriculum.
The idea for the paper came to me while I was working on a manuscript for a university textbook. Broadly speaking, the area of mathematics covered in the paper is linear algebra and analytical geometry. More specifically, I presented a new proof for the formula of the distance between two skew lines in three-dimensional space.
In fact, this formula - though presented without proof - is part of the A-Level Further Mathematics curriculum in the vectors module. For this reason, I believe our Further Mathematics pupils at Chigwell School are well placed to appreciate the ideas explored in my paper! I hope they will take the opportunity to read it and gain a brief glimpse into what university-level and research mathematics look like.”
Dr Johal's full article can be accessed here directly at the Journal.
