1. What was her role as a mathematician?
Hypatia of Alexandria was the only known world leading female mathematician, philosopher and astronomer of her time.
2. What was her journey like studying mathematics?
Hypatia was the daughter of a great mathematician and she was inspired and essentially continued his program, which was a determined effort to preserve the Greek mathematical and astronomical heritage in extremely difficult times. She made contributions from areas in geometry to number theory.
3. What was her greatest challenge?
Where Hypatia grew up, at her time, the city was full of religious differences and rivalry, causing tension and violence. Her teaching was regarded an obstacle for the knowledge she was delivering and this eventually led to her brutal death.
4. What did she enjoy other than maths?
She was also a popular teacher and lecturer on philosophical topics of a less-specialist nature.
5. Her Legacy
She was trained by her father to follow in his footsteps as a mathematician, learning to be an academic and professor at the University of Alexandria, just like her father. She was commended for her scholarship and is known to have assisted in the invention of the astrolabe, used for sea navigation.
6. She has stated:
‘Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than to not think at all.’
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