Nothing Stopped Sophie
The Story of Unshakable Mathematician Sophie Germain
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
The true story of eighteenth-century mathematician Sophie Germain, who solved the unsolvable to achieve her dream.
When her parents took away her candles to keep their young daughter from studying math...nothing stopped Sophie. When a professor discovered that the homework sent to him under a male pen name came from a woman...nothing stopped Sophie. And when she tackled a math problem that male scholars said would be impossible to solve...still, nothing stopped Sophie.
For six years Sophie Germain used her love of math and her undeniable determination to test equations that would predict patterns of vibrations. She eventually became the first woman to win a grand prize from France's prestigious Academy of Sciences for her formula, which laid the groundwork for much of modern architecture (and can be seen in the book's illustrations).
Award-winning author Cheryl Bardoe's inspiring and poetic text is brought to life by acclaimed artist Barbara McClintock's intricate pen-and-ink, watercolor, and collage illustrations in this true story about a woman who let nothing stop her.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Growing up during the French Revolution, mathematician Sophie Germain found in her study of mathematics the clarity and order missing in the outside world. Bardoe details Germain's shrewd determination how she acquired notes from university courses and mailed in homework under a male name. When she becomes the first woman to receive a grand prize from the Royal Academy of Sciences, she gains notoriety as a mathematician. McClintock's scenes of 18th-century France are infused with a golden glow; numbers loom along city streets and burst from Germain's quill pen. Bardoe concludes this warm biography by emphasizing how later mathematicians built upon Germain's work "to build the Eiffel Tower in Paris and modern skyscrapers and lengthy bridges all over the world." Ages 4 8.
