Women of Sound: Sophie Germain

Sophie Germain (1776-1831) was a French mathematician and physicist who contributed to the study of acoustics, elasticity, and number theory. She was forced to assume a fake male identity to have her work taken seriously, but her efforts paved the way for further breakthrough discoveries in mathematics.

For Further Reading:

• Celebrating women in mathematics and science – pp. 37-44
• Sophie Germain Brittanica
• Sophie Germain
• One Spark Is All You Need: Germain Gets the Hamilton Treatment
• The ‘extraordinary talent and superior genius’ of Sophie Germain

This month, we're talking about Women of Sound. These women dominated the airwaves: innovating, documenting, and creating the audio landscape we live in today.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello for Wonder Media Network. I'm Jenny Kaplan and this
is Wamanica. This month we're talking about women of sound.
These women dominated the airwaves, innovating, documenting, and creating the
audio landscape we live in today. In eighteen oh eight,
the German physicist Ernst Claudney stood in front of Napoleon

(00:23):
Bonaparte at the Academy of Science in Paris. Claudney poured
a fine layer of sand over a plate and then
ran a bow along its edge. The plate emitted a tone.
In response to the sound, the sand began to jump
and move, forming intricate geometric patterns. Amazed, Napoleon proposed a

(00:48):
prize to any mathematician who could make sense of this phenomenon. Today,
we're talking about the woman who won that prize, Sophie Germann.
Sophia was born in seventeen zeven tventy six in Paris, France,
to a wealthy family. From a young age, Sophie loved
to read books in her father's library. One day she

(01:09):
came across the story of Archimedes, the famous Greek mathematician
known for his analysis of the lover and pulley. As
the story went, Archimedes had been so engrossed in his
mathematical study that when his town was invaded by the
Roman army, he didn't notice, and he was speared to
death on the spot. Sophia was struck by how deeply
invested Archimedes had been in his practice. He'd been so

(01:32):
consumed that he'd died. Sophie knew she had to see
what the fuss was all about, so Sophie started teaching
herself the basics of mathematics. She would study late into
the night by candlelight, reading books by famous theorists like
Euler and Newton. At the time, it was frowned upon

(01:52):
for women to learn subjects like math and science. They
were only deemed fit for men. Sophie's parents discourse her
unladylike fascination with mathematics by confiscating all of her candles
and putting out the fire at night, but Sophie wasn't
easily dissuaded. She kept a secret stash of candles in
her room and bundled up in a quilt to stay warm.

(02:16):
Sometimes it got so cold that the ink froze in
the ink well, Still Sophie persisted. In seventeen ninety four,
a new academy called a col Polytechnique, opened in Paris.
It was meant to be a place of study for
the most talented mathematicians and scientists in the nation, but
only men were allowed to attend. Sophie circumvented this requirement

(02:40):
by taking on the identity of a former male student,
Monsieur le Blanc. Unaware that this Monsieur LeBlanc was actually
a young woman, the school printed extra lecture notes and
horse materials for him, allowing Sophie to keep up with
the classes. One of Sophie's teachers, Professor lagrange I, was
so impressed with this so called Monsieur LeBlanc's work that

(03:02):
he asked to meet in person. Sophie could hide her
secret no longer and revealed her true identity to the professor.
Perhaps surprisingly, the professor supported her aspirations and remained a
mentor and resource. Sophie took a particular interest in number theory,
and there was one number theory problem of vexing mathematicians

(03:24):
at the time. In the seventeenth century, the French mathematician
Pierre de Ferma proposed what's known as Fermah's last theorem.
You're probably familiar with the Pythagorean theorem that is A
squared plus B squared equal c squared. Well, Fairmah posited
that if the power is any number greater than two,
then the equation is no longer valid. It was simple

(03:46):
to show that was indeed the case, but it was
incredibly hard to prove the principle behind why it didn't work.
Fairmah himself never provided the proof, Sophie was determined to
uncover it, so in eighteen oh four, Sophie returned to
using her pseudonym and struck up a correspondence with Carl Gows,

(04:06):
a renowned German mathematician and authority on number theory, to
discuss some of her work on the proof. Sophie's true
identity was also eventually revealed to Carl. Fortunately, he too
continued to encourage her work. In the end, Sophie was
able to construct part of the missing proof. The problem

(04:28):
would continue to stump mathematicians for another century. Her breakthrough
helped lead to the discovery of the complete proof in
the mid nineteen nineties. Sophie then turned her attention to
another prominent mathematical puzzle of the day, the Claudney figures.
In response to the French Academy of Sciences contest. Sophie
explored mathematical explanations as to why sound vibrations caused the

(04:52):
intricate shifting patterns in the sand. It took Sophie three tries,
but on her third submission, the Academy agreed that her thesis,
memoir on the Vibrations of elastic plates was worthy of recognition.
In eighteen sixteen, and under her own name to boot,
Sophie Germonn became the first woman to be awarded a

(05:12):
prize by the Academy. Her pioneering work in understanding the
physics of vibration, acoustics and the elasticity of surfaces changed
the course of how we understand sound. Even still, Sophia
remained isolated and sidelined from academic circles, but always dogged,
she managed to become the first woman on her own

(05:32):
merit to attend lectures at the French Academy of Science.
She did have some allies in her corner. Carl Gauss
arranged for a German university to bestow her with an
honorary degree, but before she could receive it, she died
of breast cancer at the age of fifty five. All month,

(05:53):
we're talking about women of sound. For more information, find
us on Facebook and Instagram at Wamanica Podcast special thanks
to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co creator. Talk
to you tomorrow