Sophie Germain : revolutionary mathematician / Dora Musielak.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Musielak, Dora, author.

Series:

Springer biographies

Standardized Title:

Prime mystery

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Germain, Sophie, 1776-1831.

Germain, Sophie.

Women mathematicians--Biography.

Women mathematicians.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xvii, 254 pages : illustrations (some color), portraits (some color) ; 25 cm.

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

Cham, Switzerland : Springer, [2020]

Summary:

Sophie Germain stood right between Gauss and Legendre, and both publicly recognized her scientific efforts. Unlike her female predecessors and contemporaries, Sophie Germain was an impressive mathematician and made lasting contributions to both number theory and the theories of plate vibrations and elasticity. She was able to walk with ease across the bridge between the fields of pure mathematics and engineering physics. Though isolated and snubbed by her peers, Sophie Germain was the first woman to win the prize of mathematics from the French Academy of Sciences. She is the only woman who contributed to the proof of Fermats Last Theorem. Sophie Germain - Revolutionary Mathematician paints a rich portrait of the brilliant and complex woman, including the mathematics she developed, her associations with Gauss, Legendre, and other leading researchers, and the tumultuous times in which she lived. In this unique biography, Dora Musielak has done the impossible--she has chronicled Sophie Germains brilliance through her life and work in mathematics, in a way that is simultaneously informative, comprehensive, and accurate.

Contents:

Intro

Preface to the Second Edition

Preface to the First Edition

Acknowledgements

Contents

1 Unforgettable Childhood

Primary Education

Revolutionary Mathematicians

Coming of Age Through the Terror

Institut de France: Science Above All

2 Lessons from l'École Polytechnique

Lagrange's Lecture Notes 1797-1799

M. LeBlanc Metamorphoses into Mlle Germain

A Young Scholar Emerges

3 Sophie's Sublime Arithmetica

Number Theory: From Diophantus to Gauss

Sophie Germain and Carl Friedrich Gauss

How Napoléon's Invasion Led to Unmasking M. Le Blanc

Sophie Germain Tackles the Law of Quadratic Reciprocity

Gauss: Mathematical Astronomer

Gauss and Legendre: A Matter of Priority

4 Chladni and His Acoustic Experiments

The Prize of Mathematics, 1809

5 Euler and the Bernoullis

Euler and the Mechanics of Elastic Bodies

Foundation of Elasticity Theories

Sound and Vibrating Bodies

6 Germain and Her Biharmonic Equation

First Hypothesis

Second Attempt: More Disappointment

Paris in 1814

Winning the Grand Prix de Mathématiques

Confronting a Rival

The Germain-Lagrange Equation

7 Experiments with Vibrating Plates

Sophie Germain's Experimental Research

8 Elasticity Theory After Germain

Navier's Bending Equation

Cauchy and His Mathematical Formalism

Poisson and an Incorrect Prediction

Poisson-Germain-Navier Public Dispute

Kirchhoff's Plate Theory

Ritz Method to Model Chladni's Plates

9 Germain and Fermat's Last Theorem

Pierre de Fermat

Euler and Fermat's Theorems

Legendre Proposes a Contest to Prove FLT

Sophie Germain's Theorem

Unexpected Revelation

Germain's Research to Prove Fermat's Last Theorem

Fermat's Last Theorem After Germain

The Fermat-Wiles Theorem

Unsolved Problems in Number Theory

10 Pensées de Germain

11 Friends, Rivals, and Mentors

Introduction

Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855)

Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736-1813)

Adrien-Marie Legendre (1752-1833)

Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Fourier (1768-1830)

Siméon-Denis Poisson (1781-1840)

Claude-Louis-Marie-Henri Navier (1785-1836)

Jean-Baptiste Joseph Delambre (1749-1822)

Augustin-Louis Cauchy (1789-1857)

Guglielmo Libri, Count de Bagnano (1803-1869)

Leonhard Euler (1707-1783)

Archimedes of Syracuse (c. 287-212 B.C.)

12 The Last Years

Reaching Out to Gauss, One Last Time

Glorious Summer of 1830

Germain's Last Publications

13 Unanswered Questions

14 Princess of Mathematics

Women and Science Education

Sophie Germain Legacy

Germain-Gauss Correspondance

Sophie Germain Timeline

Illustration Credits

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Originally published as: Prime mystery : the life and mathematics of Sophie Germain. Bloomington, IN : AuthorHouse, 2015.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-249) and index.

ISBN:

3030383741

9783030383749

OCLC:

1151393682

Publisher Number:

9783030383749