Question

5 famous young mathematicians and their contributions

Answer 1

Hypatia is probably the first female mathematician who we know about. Hypatia lived in Ancient Greece - in Alexandria, which is now in modern day Egypt. She was the daughter of Theon who was a philosopher and mathematician. Hypatia assisted her father with his mathematical works, and wrote many other works of her own.

Unfortunately all of Hypatia’s work is lost and we only know the titles and other people’s references to it. Despite this, she is still considered to be a great mathematician of the ancient world.

Mary Somerville was born at a time when it wasn’t seen as necessary to give girls a good education. Mary was very interested in mathematics however, and tried to study whenever she could. She taught herself at home and spent time learning with friends and family members.

Marys second husband William was also interested in science and encouraged her to pursue her studies. In 1827 Mary was asked to translate a book by the French mathematician Laplace and her work was an immediate success. After this, Mary continued to do lots of important research for the rest of her life. Mary was given lots of honours for her work. Somerville College at Oxford University is named after her.

Mary Somerville was born at a time when it wasn’t seen as necessary to give girls a good education. Mary was very interested in mathematics however, and tried to study whenever she could. She taught herself at home and spent time learning with friends and family members.

Marys second husband William was also interested in science and encouraged her to pursue her studies. In 1827 Mary was asked to translate a book by the French mathematician Laplace and her work was an immediate success. After this, Mary continued to do lots of important research for the rest of her life. Mary was given lots of honours for her work. Somerville College at Oxford University is named after her.

You might have heard of Florence Nightingale referred to as 'the lady with the lamp'. She is famous for being a nurse who was full of compassion and the founder of modern nursing. What is less well known is that Florence was a pioneering statistician who used her work to dramatically cut death rates .

When Florence went to be a nurse in the Crimean war she used statistics to show that lots of the soldiers were dying due to the conditions of the hospitals, rather than from fighting. Florence’s use of statistics helped to show governments why people were dying. As a result she helped reduce mortality rates in both the army and at home.

In particular Florence developed lots of innovative graphs and charts which made statistics easy to understand for politicians. Before this time it was not common to represent statistics in this way.

Florence Nightingale’s work is so important that for nearly 20 years her image was on the back of the British £10 note.