Three months after the incident, Germain disclosed her true identity to Gauss. He replied, "How can I describe my astonishment and admiration on seeing my esteemed correspondent M leBlanc metamorphosed into this celebrated person. Although Gauss thought well of Germain, his replies to her letters were often delayed, and he generally did not review her work.
Eventually his interests turned away from number theory, and in the letters ceased. Despite the friendship of Germain and Gauss, they never met. When Germain's correspondence with Gauss ceased, she took interest in a contest sponsored by the Paris Academy of Sciences concerning Ernst Chladni's experiments with vibrating metal plates. The object of the competition, as stated by the Academy, was "to give the mathematical theory of the vibration of an elastic surface and to compare the theory to experimental evidence.
Then Poisson was elected to the Academy, thus becoming a judge instead of a contestant, and leaving Germain as the only entrant to the competition. In Germain began work.
Legendre assisted by giving her equations, references, and current research. She submitted her paper early in the fall of , and did not win the prize. The judging commission felt that "the true equations of the movement were not established," even though "the experiments presented ingenious results. Seven years later this tradition was broken when she made friends with Joseph Fourier, a secretary of the Academy, who obtained tickets to the sessions for her.
Germain published her prize-winning essay at her own expense in , mostly because she wanted to present her work in opposition to that of Poisson. Others discussed certain mathematical paradoxes with her. There was, however, no attempt to provide structured learning although Jacques Antoine-Joseph Cousin did offer to meet with her.
It is worth noting that, since Germain was an unmarried woman, there were social difficulties in her meeting with men. Not everyone treated her with the respect she felt she deserved. This "astronomy for ladies" does not contain a single mathematical equation and Germain felt insulted by his suggestion. Lalande sent her a letter of apology on 4 November but she never forgave him.
Another who offended her was the Hellenist, Anase de Villoisson. He did this by praising her in a poem he had written and we know how displeased she was from Villoisson's letter of apology written to her on 14 July see [ 35 ] :- Mademoiselle: I dare to take the liberty to offer you, adjoined to this, a sample of the new edition of my unfortunate work with corrections and additions which I have told you about.
I repeat with my excuses and lively and eternal regret on my word of honour that I should never have permitted myself to speak of you, Mademoiselle, in writing, and that my admiration will always be silent and enchained by the desire to obtain pardon for an error, or for an involuntary fault, and by the deep respect which I have vowed to your mother and sister.
I have the honour to be, Mademoiselle, Your humble and obedient servant, Anase de Villoisson. However, Germain's most famous correspondence was with Gauss. Between and she wrote a dozen letters to him, initially adopting again the pseudonym "M LeBlanc" because she feared being ignored because she was a woman.
After receiving her first letter, Gauss wrote to the astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers - see, for example, [ 7 ] :- I recently had the pleasure of receiving a letter from LeBlanc, a young mathematician in Paris, who made himself enthusiastically familiar with higher mathematics and showed how deeply he penetrated into my 'Disquisitiones Arithmeticae'.
During their correspondence, Gauss gave her number theory proofs high praise, an evaluation he repeated in letters to his colleagues. Germain's true identity was revealed to Gauss only after the French occupation of his hometown of Braunschweig.
Recalling Archimedes ' fate and fearing for Gauss 's safety, she contacted a French general who was a friend of her family. Gauss knew neither the general nor Sophie Germain and, after he made enquiries, she was forced to reveal her identity, writing to him [ 4 ] :- I am not as completely unknown to you as you might believe, but that fearing the ridicule attached to a female scientist, I have previously taken the name of M LeBlanc in communicating to you.
I hope that the information that I have today confided to you will not deprive me of the honour you have accorded me under a borrowed name When Gauss received this letter, he gave her even more praise. He writes:- But how to describe to you my admiration and astonishment at seeing my esteemed correspondent M LeBlanc metamorphose himself into this illustrious personage [ Sophie Germain ] who gives such a brilliant example of what I would find it difficult to believe.
A taste for the abstract sciences in general and above all the mysteries of numbers is excessively rare; one is astonished at it; the enchanting charms of this sublime science reveal themselves only to those who have the courage to go deeply into it Indeed nothing could prove to me in so flattering and less equivocal manner that the attractions of this science, which has enriched my life with so many joys, are not chimerical, as the predilection with which you have honoured it.
He had a fine town house at 4 Rue du Braque in Paris and, some time after the marriage, the whole Germain family moved into that home. Let us also note that Sophie became close to her nephew, Amand-Jacques Lherbette, the son of her elder sister.
She named Lherbette as her literary executor, and indeed after her death he would publish some of her unfinished work. In , the German physicist Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni - had visited Paris where he had conducted experiments on vibrating plates, exhibiting the so-called Chladni figures.
This work — deriving an accurate differential equation for the vibration of elastic surfaces — finally won her the coveted prize on January 8, , and she also remains in history as the first female scientist to win a prize awarded by the famous French learned society. Mentored by the famous mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange, who supported her both morally and professionally, Sophie Germain passionately and devotedly continued her work in mathematics and philosophy until her death.
She had been suffering from breast cancer since On her death certificate, she was listed as a property holder. As an homage to her decisive role in the development of mathematics, in a French school for girls and a street were named after the famous mathematician. But her interest in elasticity remained an inspiration with her.
In recognition of her contribution towards advancement of mathematics, an honorary degree was also conferred upon her by university of Gottingen after six years of her death.
After being diagnosed with breast cancer, she never gave way to her disease rather worked vigorously on her work of elasticity and game theory. At the age of 55, she died in Your email address will not be published.
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