Sophie Germain's Life And Accomplishments

At about this time the French Academy of Sciences announced a contest to explain the "underlying mathematical law" of a German physicist's study on the vibration of elastic surfaces. Sophie was fascinated and set out to explain the law underlying Chladni's study. The Academy set a two year deadline, and in 1811 Sophie submitted the only entry in the contest. Her lack of formal education was evident in the anonymous paper she submitted, and thus she was not awarded the prize. She still had much to learn in the area. Lagrange was able to correct her errors and two years later she again entered the contest which had been extended. She received honorable mention this time. Finally in 1816, she entered the contest for the third time and won with her paper Memoir on the Vibrations of Elastic Plates. Upon earning the prize, the judges did relate that there were some serious shortcomings in her explanation. These shortcomings would not be corrected for decades. After winning the contest, Sophie continued her work on the theory of elasticity publishing several more memoirs. The most important of these deals with the "nature, bounds, and extent of elastic surfaces" (Osen 90). Her work in the theory of elasticity would prove to be very important to the

In her twenties Clara decided to expand her education further by attending the Clinton Liberal institute for higher learning. There she studied analytic geometry, calculus, astronomy, mathematics and natural science in addition to French, German, ancient history, philosophy and religion (Pryor 1987). With her highly atypical education for a woman of that time, Clara continued the close pupil-teacher relationships she had enjoyed in her earlier schooling.

Likewise in Proof,. Most of Catherine’s success can be chalked up to the informal education she received at the hands of her father. As she barely even attended University, Catherine herself attributes her mathematical proficiency to spending so much time at

Diligence and hard work are conveyed by Reuven in his actions. When he got struck in the head by a baseball and could not read, he had books read to him, and he could not wait to read again. While in the library he thought it frustrating, “to be sitting there surrounded by all those journals and not be able to read a thing” (151). Compared to the average teenager who would enjoy to skip school and not read, Reuven has a fervent desire to acquire new information. He studies the Talmud with his father daily and revels in studying math. Having an interest in math sparks him to attempt to read advanced books on symbolic logic such as Principia Mathematica.

Many women have achieved in the mathematics field since the 1900’s. Especially women of color. No matter how young or old, these women have taken their careers in mathematics to an inspiring degree. Take the following women as examples, for they have created history in mathematics forever.

During William Hamilton’s younger years he had accomplished many things already. At age 5 he had already mastered Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. At age twelve his interest in math was sparked when he lost to Zerah Colburn. When he reached fifteen he had begun studying the works of Newton and Colburn. At age 19 he fell in love with a lady named Catherine Disney. While he was young, he had managed to do a number of things.

As for the works of Sophie Germain, one of the works she if known for is one of her first on Fermat 's Last Theorem. When Sophie worked on Fermat 's Last Theorem she "had adopted a new approach to the problem which was far more general than previous strategies. Her immediate goal was not to prove that one particular equation had no solutions, but to say something about several equations. In her letter to Gauss [a seasoned male mathematician of her time] she outlined a calculation which focused on those

Digging through the recycling bin of the math supervisor's office, I pull out an old piece of paper with typed font on one side, and blankness on the other -- perfect. “Mom,” I say, looking up with my four-year old eyes, “Do you have a pencil?” She goes into her purse to retrieve one, eager to see what simple drawing I could create as we waited for my dad (who was a math teacher at the time) to come out of his meeting. However, as she is searching, I waddle right up to the bookshelf and pursue my options. A vast array of different grade-level textbooks were laid out before me; the third-grade option seemed most suitable. I took my pencil, the book, and the paper, and sat sat down at the table to see what I could make of the advanced problems.

One of her families acquaintances was Fontenelle, an perpetual secretary of the French Academie des Sciences. Emilie’s father noticed her brilliance at age 10 and asked for Fontenelle to meet with her. Emilie’s mother is believed to disapprove of all of this. As a result of all the tutors that her father would bring to the house, by the time she was 12 she was fluent in, Latin, Italian, Greek, and German. She got education in mathematics, literature, and science. Her mother Gabrielle-Anne was horrified about what she was learning and fought Louis-Nicolas at every step, once almost sending Emilie to a

She worked the calculator in a suave manner. Math is one of her strongest subjects and she operates well under

She published philosophical works clarifying facts and generalizing the into laws to form a system of sociology and psychology. Years later, Germain was the first person to provide proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem, that has been a struggle for mathematicians for the past 200 years. “That if xn + yn = zn, then neither x, y, nor z can be a natural number if n is greater than 2, stated from Fermat's Last Theorem" (Barrow-Green). Germain used her proficiency on prime numbers to help to prove this theorem. Successful from her work, she published her deeds in a supplement to her acquaintance Adrien-Marie Legendre's work Théorie des nombres.” (The Remarkable Life of Sophie Germain)

The book Sophie’s World is about philosophy in a small girls world. The book tells many things about philosophy in the world and in history. She meets someone who starts sending her letters and gives her philosophy lessons. It’s an interesting book and makes you think about many ideas. Philosophy is a mysterious subject to the world.

It is worth noting from the start that Sophie’s World revolves around the premise that philosophy is the single most important discipline in the life of any individual. Sophie is introduced to the idea of philosophy when Noah gives her a picture with animals that have been saved. Alberto keeps mentioning the natural theory of life and backs this up by quoting Charles Darwin, Groucho Marx and Sigmund Freud (Gaarder, 2007).

She said Willian Thurston quotes “Mathematics is an art of human understanding” so the reason why she loves math is because it gives her an understanding of how things work, and having a sense of understanding is a self-sustaining pleasure of

Mathematics has always been described as the purest science and considered as one of the most important aspects in many countries around the world, especially developed countries. Theoretically, the most significant requirements for a life of a mathematician is the mathematical ability. Nevertheless, very few women get involve in this field, which creates a myth, and slowly develops into a stereotype in society, that women are naturally not good at math. However, many people would be surprised, that “the world’s greatest living mathematician for a time was a women” (Deakin 13). Hypatia of Alexandria was, indeed, a physically beautiful woman who used her talent and intelligence to defy the stereotypes against