Mathematician:Hypatia of Alexandria



Greek: Ὑπατία.

Egyptian mathematician, astronomer, scientist and philosopher. Daughter of Theon.

Head of Platonist school in Alexandria in c. 400 CE.

Notable for:
 * Being the first woman in mathematics notable enough to have been remembered by history;
 * Being murdered by a mob of Christians for holding pagan beliefs.

Her death has been argued as signalling the decline of learning in the Western world, and the start of the "dark ages", from which recovery would not happen for another thousand years.

Nationality
Alexandrian (a city in what is now Egypt).

History

 * Born: between 350 and 370 CE
 * Died: March 415

Books and Papers

 * A commentary on the 13-volume Arithmetica by Diophantus.
 * A commentary on the Conics of Apollonius.
 * Edited the existing version of Ptolemy's Almagest.
 * Edited Theon's commentary on Euclid's.
 * The Astronomical Canon (possibly a new edition of Ptolemy's Handy Tables).

Note on pronunciation
While it is common to anglicise the pronunciation of her name as Hip-ay-sha, it is more correct from examination of its Greek lettering to voice her name as Hip-a-tee-a

Also see

 * , Chapter $\text {A}.9$