Sophie Germain

Sophie Germain was a mathematical genius who lived between 1776 and 1831. She was born in France before the social upheaval of the French Revolution. Her father, Ambroze Francois, was a silk merchant. He and her mother, Marie Germain, were intellectuals who were active in the French Revolution. At the time, in France, daughters of wealthy people were given private tuition, in reading and writing, but not maths, which they were never expected to use. Only boys went to school. Sophie spent a lot of time in her father's library, reading. There she came across a story about Archimedes, an ancient scientist, who was killed by the Romans because he was so engrossed in working out a math problem that he didn't notice their arrival. What was it about mathematics that could have so captivated a man's mind? Sophie wondered. To find out, she began to read books on mathematics. Her interest frightened her parents. They worried that it was harmful for a female to be engrossed in such a subject and tried to discourage her by putting out the fire when they went to bed, and taking away all the candles in her room to prevent her from reading after bedtime. Sophie didn't argue with parents, but she did hide candles away, and, after her parents were sound asleep, she would get up, wrap herself in a blanket, and, work on math problems in candlelight. One morning, her parents discovered their daughter's secret. She had fallen asleep at her desk. It had been so cold that the ink in her bottle had frozen! Realising that she wasn't going to give up, her parents reluctantly agreed to allow her to study on her own. However, they did not actively help by hiring tutors, and kept hoping that she would outgrow her interest. Finally, understanding that this would never happen, her mother secretly provided Sophie with financial support to study maths.