June 27, 1831
To all of Sophie's future mathematicians,
It is with utmost sadness that I write to you all of the passing of Sophie Germain earlier today. She passed at the young age of 55 from a tough battle with breast cancer. I know she wanted to write more letters, so, I wanted to take this time to share with you how amazing Sophie was and how deserving she was of more recognition of her prestigious work.
I, Carl Frederick Gauss, had the wonderful opportunity of being Sophie's first mentor. Although I'd like to point out, Sophie and I were actually the same age! That just goes to show how disadvantaged Sophie was in our culture growing up. Woman of middle class did not study mathematics or sciences nor could they attend academies. Yet Sophie overcame all of that and so much more.
I am sure that Sophie made you quite aware of Fermat's last theorem. Well Sophie had this great big plan to prove the theorem. I believed in her, I really did, but this theorem had proved challenging to so many highly capable mathematicians and she hardly had any formal training. Despite that, she was able to prove a part of the theorem for a number of exponents. This was her plan: "to prove that for each odd prime exponent p, there are an infinite number of auxiliary primes of the form 2Np+1 such that the set of non-zero p-th power residues xp mod (2Np+1) does not contain any consecutive integers. If there were a solution to xp + yp = zp, then any such auxiliary prime would have to necessarily divide one of the numbers x, y, or z" (Riddle, 2009).
Her work, with the help of Legendre was turned into the following theorem:
Not long before her passing, I was successfully able to convince the University of Gottingen to give Sophie an honorary degree, considering she was practically a student there and worked so hard. Sadly she did not receive it before she passed.
Sophie and I grew up in an era of revolution and I can only think to say that Sophie embodied that word so perfectly. She was a revolutionary and I hope that one day she becomes a celebrated mathematician.
Until then,
Carl Frederick Gauss
Sources:
Riddle, Larry. "Sophie Germain and Fermat's Last Theorem." Biographies of Women of Mathematics. July 21, 2009. https://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/germain-FLT/SGandFLT.htm
Swift, Amanda. “Sophie Germain.” Sophie Germain, Apr. 1995, www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/germain.htm.
To all of Sophie's future mathematicians,
It is with utmost sadness that I write to you all of the passing of Sophie Germain earlier today. She passed at the young age of 55 from a tough battle with breast cancer. I know she wanted to write more letters, so, I wanted to take this time to share with you how amazing Sophie was and how deserving she was of more recognition of her prestigious work.
I, Carl Frederick Gauss, had the wonderful opportunity of being Sophie's first mentor. Although I'd like to point out, Sophie and I were actually the same age! That just goes to show how disadvantaged Sophie was in our culture growing up. Woman of middle class did not study mathematics or sciences nor could they attend academies. Yet Sophie overcame all of that and so much more.
I am sure that Sophie made you quite aware of Fermat's last theorem. Well Sophie had this great big plan to prove the theorem. I believed in her, I really did, but this theorem had proved challenging to so many highly capable mathematicians and she hardly had any formal training. Despite that, she was able to prove a part of the theorem for a number of exponents. This was her plan: "to prove that for each odd prime exponent p, there are an infinite number of auxiliary primes of the form 2Np+1 such that the set of non-zero p-th power residues xp mod (2Np+1) does not contain any consecutive integers. If there were a solution to xp + yp = zp, then any such auxiliary prime would have to necessarily divide one of the numbers x, y, or z" (Riddle, 2009).
Her work, with the help of Legendre was turned into the following theorem:
"Let p be an odd prime. If there is an auxiliary prime θ satisfying the two conditions:Without her work, I don't know how long it would have taken for someone else to really get a grip on Fermat's work. I've even submitted work on his theorem but nothing like Sophie's. I hope one day the theorem can be proved.
- xp + yp + zp = 0 mod θ implies that x = 0 mod θ, or y = 0 mod θ, or z = 0 mod θ, and
then Case I of Fermat's Last Theorem is true for p" (Riddle, 2009)
- xp = p mod θ is impossible for any value of x,
Not long before her passing, I was successfully able to convince the University of Gottingen to give Sophie an honorary degree, considering she was practically a student there and worked so hard. Sadly she did not receive it before she passed.
Sophie and I grew up in an era of revolution and I can only think to say that Sophie embodied that word so perfectly. She was a revolutionary and I hope that one day she becomes a celebrated mathematician.
Until then,
Carl Frederick Gauss
Sources:
Riddle, Larry. "Sophie Germain and Fermat's Last Theorem." Biographies of Women of Mathematics. July 21, 2009. https://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/germain-FLT/SGandFLT.htm
Swift, Amanda. “Sophie Germain.” Sophie Germain, Apr. 1995, www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/germain.htm.
Very nice ending Kayleigh!
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