Abstract
The nineteenth century was the century of science and rapid technological progress—in 1900, most goods could be produced a hundred times faster than in 1800. Never before had there been so many important physicists, chemists, and mathematicians at work at the same time. But the share of women in these developments was still modest.
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Notes
- 1.
Unfortunately, Fermat’s original writing has been lost. But one finds his conjecture repeated in numerous works, most prominently in the edition Arithmetica by Diophantus with notes, which Fermat’s son edited, see P. Tannery and Ch. Henry (eds.), Œuvres de Fermat. Tome Premier. Paris: Gauthier-Villars (1891), p. 291; see also: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6213144d.texteImage).
- 2.
Today it is assumed that Fermat had not found a proof for all values of n, but “only” for n = 4.
- 3.
A. Del Centina, Unpublished Manuscripts of Sophie Germain and a Revaluation of Her Work on Fermat’s Last Theorem”. Archives for History of Exact Sciences, 62, 4 (2008), pp. 349–392; https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00407-007-0016-4.
- 4.
Elementary proofs of Fermat's great theorem for some special cases. Dtsch. Math. 7 (1943).
- 5.
Adrien-Marie Legendre, Recherches sur quelques objets d'analyse indéterminée et particulièrement sur le théorème de Fermat, in Mémoires de l'Académie royale des sciences de l'Institut de France, 6 (1823).
- 6.
A summary of her actual achievements can be found in: H. Kagele, Sophie Germain, The Princess of Mathematics and Fermat’s Last Theorem, https://www.gcsu.edu/sites/files/page-assets/node-808/attachments/kagele.pdf.
- 7.
N. Mackinnon, Sophie Germain, or, Was Gauss a Feminist?, The Mathematical Gazette, 74, 470 (1990), pp. 346–351; https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/mathematical-gazette/article/abs/sophie-germain-or-was-gauss-a-feminist/6176F6C98067333F574636CD4A40D22C.
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Jaeger, L. (2023). Sophie Germain (1776–1831): The Greatest Mathematician in France. In: Women of Genius in Science . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-23926-7_5
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