Many years ago, in 355 CE to be exact, Hypatia was born. Hypatia is one of the world’s most well known mathematicians. Especially for her time, Hypatia was extremely bright and made many important discoveries and contributions to mathematics. Hypatia’s improvements shaped mathematics, and how we see them today. Hypatia's early life, accomplishments, and effects, and end of her life, all have importance and have shaped the world in mathematics. As mentioned, Hypatia was born around 355 CE. As the daughter of the already well known mathematician, Theon of Alexandria, Hypatia was practically born into mathematics. Theon was a scholar at the University of Alexandria, Egypt. Theon being Hypatia’s father, probably caused a great deal in her own love for mathematics and sciences.“Throughout her childhood, Theon raised Hypatia in an environment of thought. Historians believe that Theon tried to raise the perfect human” (Adair, 5). Growing up with a father enriched in education on mathematics and science, had a reflection on Hapatia. …show more content…
Some historians believe she may have ever surpassed her father’s knowledge. One important impact that Hypatia had on math, was edition the on the Conics of Apollonius. The Conics of Apollonius divided cones into different parts by a plane. This concept was extremely complex, and developed the ideas of parabolas, hyperbolas, and ellipses. Though Hypatia did not originate this concept, “ With Hypatia's work on this important book, she made the concepts easier to understand, thus making the work survive through many centuries” (Adair, 19). Hypatia is also credited for editing Archimedes’ dimensions of the Circle, as well as commenting and working on Diophantus’
...acknowledged as the greatest women mathematician of the 1900’s, even though she had to go through many obstacles and chauvinism. She was the first women to be accepted into a major college. She proved many of the stereotypes that women were considered to be erroneous, which in the long run also made her a famous person. She was the one who discovered the associative law, commutative law, and the distributive law. These are the Laws that make the basics for Algebra, Geometry, and Basic math. All together she has unquestionably earned the title as the most famous woman mathematician of the 1900’s.
Hypatia was born in 370 A.D. in Alexandria, Egypt. From that day on her life was one enriched with a passion for knowledge. Theon, Hypatia’s father whom himself was a mathematician, raised Hypatia in an environment of thought. Both of them formed a strong bond as he taught her his own knowledge and shared his passion in the search of answers to the unknown. Under her fathers discipline he developed a physical routine for her to ensure a healthy body as well as a highly functional mind. Her father instructed her on the different religions of the world and how to influence people with the power of words. Also taught her the fundamentals of teaching so she could be a profound orator. From the teachings of her father, she to became a mathematician and philosopher which she was recognized the head of the Neo-Platonist school of philosophy at Alexandria. Due to her eloquence, modesty, and beauty, combined with her remarkable intellectual gifts, she attracted a large number of pupils. Her students were aristocratic young men, both Pagan and Christian, who rose to occupy influential civil and eccelestrastical positions. They considered Hypatia as their “divine guide” into the realm of philosophical and cosmic mysteries, which included mathematics. She combined the principles of free thinking and the ideal of pure living. She was known for her prudence, moderation, and self control, and for her ease of manner and her beauty. She was recognized as an eloquent teacher and by 390 A.D. her circle of influence was well-established. She also symbolized learning and science which in time of Western history were largely identified by early Christians with Paganism. As such, she was the focal point in the tension and riots between Christians and non-Christians that racked more than once in Alexandria. In this time Cyril roused negative sentiment toward Orestes and Orestes was attacked by 500 Nitrian monks. Due to Cyril and his negativity and what he caused to happen to Orestes, Hypatia fell victim to the political hostilities due to being a close associate of Orestes and was undoubtedly defamed by Cyril. Admiration for her became resentment and she was perceived as an obstacle to the conciliation of Orestes and Cyril. Being as that, Cyril began planning Hypatia’s most crucial death. In 415 A.D., during Lent, while riding in her chariot through the streets of Alexandria, she was attacked upon by a fanatical mob of antipagan Christians.
Geometry, a cornerstone in modern civilization, also had its beginnings in Ancient Greece. Euclid, a mathematician, formed many geometric proofs and theories [Document 5]. He also came to one of the most significant discoveries of math, Pi. This number showed the ratio between the diameter and circumference of a circle.
Hippocrates taught in Athens and worked on squaring the circle and also worked on duplicating the cube. He grew far in these areas and although his work is not lost, it must have contained much of what Euclid later included in Books One and Two of the Elements.
The purpose of the Pythagoreans was to improve political, moral, and social life. The inventions and beliefs of Pythagoras’s followers help us understand the origins of math and philosophy in ancient
...st important scientists in history. It is said that they both shaped the sciences and mathematics that we use and study today. Euclid’s postulates and Archimedes’ calculus are both important fundamentals and tools in mathematics, while discoveries, such Archimedes’ method of using water to measure the volume of an irregularly shaped object, helped shaped all of today’s physics and scientific principles. It is for these reasons that they are remembered for their contributions to the world of mathematics and sciences today, and will continue to be remembered for years to come.
Even though Aristotle’s contributions to mathematics are significantly important and lay a strong foundation in the study and view of the science, it is imperative to mention that Aristotle, in actuality, “never devoted a treatise to philosophy of mathematics” [5]. As aforementioned, even his books never truly leaned toward a specific philosophy on mathematics, but rather a form or manner in which to attempt to understand mathematics through certain truths.
Born in the Netherlands, Daniel Bernoulli was one of the most well-known Bernoulli mathematicians. He contributed plenty to mathematics and advanced it, ahead of its time. His father, Johann, made him study medicine at first, as there was little money in mathematics, but eventually, Johann gave in and tutored Daniel in mathematics. Johann treated his son’s desire to lea...
The more I travel into Hypatia life the more I have come to learn the truth about her life. This also helped me view her life in terms of cognitive, physical, social-emotional development processes. An accomplished scholar in her time, she was a prominent figure in mathematics and philosophy. And from her life we also learned that her growth support researchers studies which concluded that social and cultural influences shape cognitive development early in life, and social and cultural influences have a continued effect on cognitive development throughout the life span (Harris, 2005).
Hypatia was born in the year 370 AD in Alexandria, Egypt. She was the daughter of Theon, a famous mathematician and astronomer. He invented many things, but his most famous invention is the astrolabe, which measures the altitude of a star or planet. Hypatia studied with her father for many years at the Museum in Alexandria, but soon became unsatisfied with his instruction because she was smarter than him. She left Egypt, and traveled to Greece and Rome to do "post-graduate" work. Her brains and beauty gave her a wonderful reputation throughout the capitols near the Mediterranean.
In conclusion, it is clear that while their ancient civilization perished long ago, the contributions that the Egyptians made to mathematics have lived on. The Egyptians were practical in their approach to mathematics, and developed arithmetic and geometry in response to transactions they carried out in business and agriculture on a daily basis. Therefore, as a civilization that created hieroglyphs, the decimal system, and hieratic writing and numerals, the contributions of the Egyptians to the study of mathematics cannot and should not be overlooked.
Burton, D. (2011). The History of Mathematics: An Introduction. (Seventh Ed.) New York, NY. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
The history of math has become an important study, from ancient to modern times it has been fundamental to advances in science, engineering, and philosophy. Mathematics started with counting. In Babylonia mathematics developed from 2000B.C. A place value notation system had evolved over a lengthy time with a number base of 60. Number problems were studied from at least 1700B.C. Systems of linear equations were studied in the context of solving number problems.
Euclid of Alexandria was born in about 325 BC. He is the most prominent mathematician of antiquity best known for his dissertation on mathematics. He was able to create “The Elements” which included the composition of many other famous mathematicians together. He began exploring math because he felt that he needed to compile certain things and fix certain postulates and theorems. His book included, many of Eudoxus’ theorems, he perfected many of Theaetetus's theorems also. Much of Euclid’s background is very vague and unknown. It is unreliable to say whether some things about him are true, there are two types of extra information stated that scientists do not know whether they are true or not. The first one is that given by Arabian authors who state that Euclid was the son of Naucrates and that he was born in Tyre. This is believed by historians of mathematics that this is entirely fictitious and was merely invented by the authors. The next type of information is that Euclid was born at Megara. But this is not the same Euclid that authors thought. In fact, there was a Euclid of Megara, who was a philosopher who lived approximately 100 years before Euclid of Alexandria.
Obviously Euclid’s The Elements is by far the most famous mathematical work of classical antiquity, and also has the distinction of being the world’s oldest continuously used mathematical textbook. Very little information is known about the author, beyond knowing the fact he lived in Alexandria around 300 BCE. Subjects of works includes geometry, proportion and number theory.