Pandrosion
Pandrosion of Alexandria (
Contributions
Pandrosion is credited with developing a method for calculating numerically accurate but approximate solutions to the problem of doubling the cube, or more generally of calculating cube roots. It is a "recursive geometric" solution, but three-dimensional rather than working within the plane.[1] Pappus criticized this work as lacking a proper mathematical proof.[1][2][3] Although Pappus does not directly state that the method is Pandrosion's, he includes it in a section of his Collection dedicated to correcting what he perceives as errors in Pandrosion's students.[1][3] Another method included in the same section, and attributable in the same way indirectly to Pandrosion, is a correct and exact method for constructing the geometric mean, simpler than the method used by Pappus.[1][4]
Name and gender
The name Pandrosion is a
When Friedrich Hultsch prepared his 1878 translation of Pappus's Collection from Greek into Latin, the manuscript of the Collection that he used referred to Pandrosion using a feminine form of address. Hultsch decided that this must have been a mistake, and referred to Pandrosion as masculine in his translation; many later scholars have followed suit.[2][6] However, the 1988 English translation of Pappus by Alexander Raymond Jones "argued convincingly" that the original feminine form was not a mistake,[1] and more recent scholarship has followed Jones in taking the position that Pandrosion was a woman.[3][5][7][8][9]
Connection to Hypatia
Hypatia has often been called the first woman to have contributed to mathematics, but Pappus died before the earliest suggested birth date of Hypatia. Therefore, Pandrosion is a likely candidate for an earlier female contributor to mathematics than Hypatia.[2] Pandrosion was also described by Pappus as a teacher of mathematics, and although Pappus recorded only men among her students, Edward J. Watts suggests that Hypatia may have known of, or even known, Pandrosion.[4]
References
- ^ . The main text of Knorr's article includes a description of Pandrosion's cube-doubling method; for the discussion of Jones' work on Pandrosion's gender, see footnote 2, p. 72.
- ^ a b c O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Pandrosion of Alexandria", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
- ^ S2CID 121211783
- ^ .
- ^ a b Little, John B. (2023), Pappus of Alexandria, Book III of the Mathematical Collection, Holy Cross Bookshelf, vol. 63, College of the Holy Cross, p. 4
- ^ Pappus (1876), "Book 3.1", in Hultsch, Friedrich (ed.), Pappi Alexandrini Collectionis quae supersunt (in Greek and Latin), vol. I, Berlin
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link). - MR 2080682. See in particular p. 197.
- .
- . See in particular "Scholarly Women in the Ancient and Medieval Periods", pp. 35–36.