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Sophie Germain
(1 Apr 1776 - 27 Jun 1831)
French mathematician who is known for her work in number theory and contributions to the applied mathematics of acoustics and elasticity
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Science Quotes by Sophie Germain (2 quotes)
Bust of Sophie Germain
By Zacharie Astruc - Reconstructed from death mask in the museum of the Louvre. (source)
By Zacharie Astruc - Reconstructed from death mask in the museum of the Louvre. (source)
Algebra is but written geometry and geometry is but figured algebra.
— Sophie Germain
From Mémoire sur les Surfaces Élastiques. As quoted and cited in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-book (1914), 276.
In describing the honourable mission I charged him with, M. Pernety informed me that he made my name known to you. This leads me to confess that I am not as completely unknown to you as you might believe, but that fearing the ridicule attached to a female scientist, I have previously taken the name of M. LeBlanc in communicating to you those notes that, no doubt, do not deserve the indulgence with which you have responded.
Explaining her use of a male psuedonym.
Explaining her use of a male psuedonym.
— Sophie Germain
Letter to Carl Friedrich Gauss (1807)
Quotes by others about Sophie Germain (2)
Sophie Germain proved to the world that even a woman can accomplish something in the most rigorous and abstract of sciences and for that reason would well have deserved an honorary degree.
Quoted in G. Waldo Dunnington, Carl Friedrich Gauss: Titan of Science (2004), 68.
The enchanting charms of this sublime science reveal only to those who have the courage to go deeply into it. But when a woman, who because of her sex and our prejudices encounters infinitely more obstacles that an man in familiarizing herself with complicated problems, succeeds nevertheless in surmounting these obstacles and penetrating the most obscure parts of them, without doubt she must have the noblest courage, quite extraordinary talents and superior genius.
in a letter to Sophie Germain (c.April 1807)
See also:
- 1 Apr - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Germain's birth.
- Sophie Germain - An Unknown Mathematician - Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine (1894)
- Sophie Germain: An Essay in the History of the Theory of Elasticity, by L.L. Bucciarelli, N. Dworsky. - book suggestion.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
