On April 1, 1776 in Paris, France Ambroise-Fancois Germain and Marie-Madeleine Gruguelu welcomed their second daughter, Sophie Germain. Sophie was the second of three daughters for the pair. It is said that her family was very wealthy although her father’s occupation was not certain. Most people believed that Amrboise-Francois Germain was a silk merchant. He was also a political member of bourgeoisie at the Estate General, which exposed her and her sisters to politics at a young age. Sophie was born during the year the American Revolution began and when she was just thirteen years old the French Revolution began. Due to the danger outside Sophie was kept indoors during this time. She found interest in reading books in her father’s library.
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During this time when females were looked down upon for wanting an education, or trying to receive one. Sophie did not let that stop her. Because females were not permitted to attend the newly opened ECole Polytechnique in Paris Sophie secured notes from those who studied there. She met Joseph-Louis Lagrange and throughout the years he was a support person for her.
Early work of Sophie’s was in number theory. This was something said to have been cause by Adrien-Marie Legendres Theorie des nombres (1789) as well as Carl Friedrich Gauss’s Disquistiones Arithmeticae (1801) In 1804 Sophie launched a correspondence with Carl Friedrich Gauss under her male pseudonym, M. LeBlanc. Gauss was unaware of this until Sophie asked a friend who was in the French army to find Gauss’ whereabouts so he would be safe, and not treated badly.
In 1809, the French Academy of Sciences awarded a prize for experiments on vibrating plates which was conducted by the Physicist Ernst F. Fchladni. In 1811 Sophie anonymously submitted a memoir. Unforutnately she was not the recipient of the prize. On her third submission she finally obtained the prize. In 1821 she was privately published. During the 1820s, because of her gender she was isolated from the academic community and because of this she was unaware of eleasticity developments. A friend, Joseph Fourier, distanced himself from Sophie because of his uncertainty of her professional work on elasticity. Although he distanced himself they remained
During this time when females were looked down upon for wanting an education, or trying to receive one. Sophie did not let that stop her. Because females were not permitted to attend the newly opened ECole Polytechnique in Paris Sophie secured notes from those who studied there. She met Joseph-Louis Lagrange and throughout the years he was a support person for her.
Early work of Sophie’s was in number theory. This was something said to have been cause by Adrien-Marie Legendres Theorie des nombres (1789) as well as Carl Friedrich Gauss’s Disquistiones Arithmeticae (1801) In 1804 Sophie launched a correspondence with Carl Friedrich Gauss under her male pseudonym, M. LeBlanc. Gauss was unaware of this until Sophie asked a friend who was in the French army to find Gauss’ whereabouts so he would be safe, and not treated badly.
In 1809, the French Academy of Sciences awarded a prize for experiments on vibrating plates which was conducted by the Physicist Ernst F. Fchladni. In 1811 Sophie anonymously submitted a memoir. Unforutnately she was not the recipient of the prize. On her third submission she finally obtained the prize. In 1821 she was privately published. During the 1820s, because of her gender she was isolated from the academic community and because of this she was unaware of eleasticity developments. A friend, Joseph Fourier, distanced himself from Sophie because of his uncertainty of her professional work on elasticity. Although he distanced himself they remained