Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Friends, Rivals, and Mentors

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Sophie Germain

Part of the book series: Springer Biographies ((SPRINGERBIOGS))

  • 975 Accesses

Abstract

Sophie Germain was ill at ease by unwelcome attention. She may have been rude and even quick-tempered with those who treated her condescendingly. At the peak of her career, she displayed arrogance unexpected in a woman of her time, and she fought back with those who did not take her work seriously.

Through this chaos of thoughts, the genius distinguishes a simple idea; his choice is irrevocably fixed, he knows that this idea will be fruitful.

—SOPHIE GERMAIN

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Paul Ritti included this quote in his review of Germain’s Oeuvres Philosophiques in the 1879 issue of Journal de Savants, p. 307.

  2. 2.

    Gauss dedicated the Disquisitiones to the Duke of Brunswick, who financed its publication and had already financed Gauss’s education, and to whom Gauss felt deeply indebted.

  3. 3.

    Gauss (1799).

  4. 4.

    Cain (?).

  5. 5.

    Germain-Gauss Correspondence. Letter 7.

  6. 6.

    Germain-Gauss Correspondence, Letter 9.

  7. 7.

    Laubenbacher and Pengelley (2010), p. 653.

  8. 8.

    Gauss won the prize for his essay entitled Théorie des planètes et les moyens de déterminer l’orbite de première apparition d’après trois observations et sans aucune connaissance préliminaire d’aucun des éléments (26 Decembre 1809).

  9. 9.

    Bell (1937), p. 218.

  10. 10.

    Ball (1908).

  11. 11.

    Lagrange Oeuvres, p. XLVII.

  12. 12.

    Ball (1908), pp. 401–412.

  13. 13.

    Joseph Louis de Lagrange—Œuvres complètes, tome 1. Available online at http://portail.mathdoc.fr/cgi-bin/oetoc?id=OE_LAGRANGE__1.

  14. 14.

    Stupuy (1896), pp. 287–306.

  15. 15.

    Discours prononcé aux funérailles de M Legendre par M. Poisson. Moniteur universel (20 Jan 1833), 162.

  16. 16.

    Legendre (1787).

  17. 17.

    Élie de Beaumont (1861), p. 22.

  18. 18.

    Legendre (1808).

  19. 19.

    Letter to Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi dated 30 November 1827.

  20. 20.

    Legendre (1805).

  21. 21.

    A year later, Legendre published a follow-up to this work, after French astronomer Alexis Bouvard discovered a comet on 20 October 1805. This was an opportunity for Legendre to test his method once again.

  22. 22.

    Translated as “Theory of Motion of the Heavenly Bodies Moving about the Sun in Conic Sections.”

  23. 23.

    http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Legendre.html.

  24. 24.

    Élie de Beaumont (1861).

  25. 25.

    Duren (2009).

  26. 26.

    Fourcy (1828).

  27. 27.

    http://portail.mathdoc.fr/cgi-bin/oetoc?id=OE_FOURIER__2.

  28. 28.

    Stupuy (1896), p. 319.

  29. 29.

    Ibid. p. 323.

  30. 30.

    Arago (1833), p. CXXXVI.

  31. 31.

    Ibid.

  32. 32.

    Ibid.

  33. 33.

    The MacTutor History of Mathematics, http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Poisson.html.

  34. 34.

    Navier (1816), p. 45.

  35. 35.

    Navier (1826).

  36. 36.

    Cannone and Friedlander (2003).

  37. 37.

    Ibid.

  38. 38.

    Navier (1822), pp. 389–440.

  39. 39.

    Darrigol (2002).

  40. 40.

    Ibid.

  41. 41.

    Anderson (1997).

  42. 42.

    Valson (1868), p. 27.

  43. 43.

    Ibid, p. 42.

  44. 44.

    Smithies (2008), p. 24.

  45. 45.

    Cauchy (1827).

  46. 46.

    Cauchy (1815), p. 177.

  47. 47.

    These notes are in his Œuvres complètes, Série 1 and Série 2 available at http://portail.mathdoc.fr/cgi-bin/oetoc?id=OE_CAUCHY_1_1.

  48. 48.

    http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Cauchy.html.

  49. 49.

    Ibid.

  50. 50.

    Valson (1868).

  51. 51.

    Libri (1823).

  52. 52.

    Del Centina (2005), p. 14.

  53. 53.

    Institut de France. Procès-verbaux. Tome X, p. 238: “Sur l’invitation de M. le Président, M. Libri prend place parmi les Membres.”

  54. 54.

    Del Centina (2006), p. 5.

  55. 55.

    Alexanderson (2012), pp. 327–331.

  56. 56.

    Grattan-Guinnes (1984), pp. 75–76.

  57. 57.

    Ibid.

  58. 58.

    Institut de France. Procès-verbaux. Tome X, p. 25.

  59. 59.

    Alexanderson (2012), p. 329.

  60. 60.

    Euler published his first work on number theory when he was twenty-five years old.

  61. 61.

    Many interesting facts about Euler’s life are found in Emil A. Fellmann (2007). Leonhard Euler, Birkhäuser-Verlag, Switzerland. For references about his work I recommend two excellent books: C. Edward Sandifer, The Early Mathematics of Leonhard Euler, The MAA Tercentenary Euler Celebration, (MAA, 2007), and Robert Burn’s translation Euler and Modern Science, Eds. N. N. Bogolyubov, G. K. Mikhailov, and A. P. Yushkevich, (MAA 2007).

  62. 62.

    Fellmann (2007).

  63. 63.

    Ibid.

  64. 64.

    Sandifer (2005).

  65. 65.

    Fellman (2007), p. 136.

  66. 66.

    Calinger (1996), p. 155.

  67. 67.

    Calinger (1976), p. 213.

  68. 68.

    Condorcet (1842).

  69. 69.

    Klyve (2010).

  70. 70.

    Condorcet (1842).

  71. 71.

    Ibid.

  72. 72.

    Fellmann (2007), p. 136.

  73. 73.

    Euler (1750), pp. 328–337.

  74. 74.

    Musielak (2018).

  75. 75.

    Fellmann (2007), p. 131.

  76. 76.

    Montucla (1756), p. 234.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, USA

    Dora Musielak

Authors
  1. Dora Musielak
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dora Musielak .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Musielak, D. (2020). Friends, Rivals, and Mentors. In: Sophie Germain. Springer Biographies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38375-6_11

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation