Famous Mathematician (Deetty-2A)

HYPATIA

Hypatia was a
famous Hellenistic

Neoplatonist
mathematician,
astronomer, and
philosopher, who
lived in Alexandria,
Egypt, then part of
the Eastern Roman
Empire. She was born
about 355 CE and
died in March of 415.

Hypatia was the first
woman to give
importance to
mathematics. In

Alexandria's history,
she was the last
mathematician.
Hypatia was the

daughter of Theon of
Alexandria, himself a
mathematician and

astronomer.

She was trained by her
father and eventually
replaced him as the
leading mathematician

of Alexandria and,
indeed as the greatest
mathematician of her
time. Hypatia became

an excellent public
speaker and scholar as

she followed her
father on the Library
of Alexandria's faculty.

There she did work on
algebraic equations

and conic sections. She
edited the work On the
Conics of Apollonius,

which divided cones
into different parts by
a plane. This concept
developed the ideas of
hyperbolas, parabolas,

and ellipses.

With Hypatia's work on
this important book,
she made the theory
easier to understand,
thus making the work
survive through many
centuries. Hypatia
analysed older works,
probably.

Including those
written by Ptolemy,

Diophantus, and
Apollonius, to make

them easier to
understand. One of

Hypatia's
mathematical work

is in the
introduction to

Theon's
commentary on
Ptolemy's Book III
of the Almagest.

Theon describes this
as the edition

prepared by the
philosopher, my
daughter Hypatia.
Another report comes
from Hesychius in the
6th century, who said
that she wrote an

analysis on
Diophantus, the
Canon of Astronomy
and the Conics of

Apollonius.

Hypatia was a
genius, and for

many young
women, she became
an inspiration and
encouraged them to

pursue their
dreams.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypatia
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hyp
atia
https://uh.edu/engines/epi215.htm

TThyhyoaoauunn!!kk