RATHINDRA PRASAD LAHIRI's Blog – May 2009 Archive (1)

Hypatia of Alexandria

(355 or 370 - 415/416 A.D.)



"She was a fine philosopher -- for a woman" when hearing about ancient female prodigies. The were "respectable" women, were nearly non-existent.

This woman, however, defies all such qualifiers.



Hypatia was, simply, the last great Alexandrian mathematician and philosopher. By writing a commentary on The Conics of Apollonius of Perga which divided cones into sections by a plane, Hypatia made geometry intelligible to… Continue