Sophie Germain was a self taught mathematician who contributed to the study of acoustics, elasticity, and the theory of number. She did the impossible to fit in somewhere she was not belonged during her time period. Although she was born in an era where women could not do the same as men could. She went above and beyond to fit in she succeeded her goals. Marie-Sophie Germain was born on April 1, 1776 in Paris, France. She was the daughter of a wealthy upper class family. Although her parents discouraged her from learning she would sneak into her father’s library to read the works of the great mathematicians. She wrapped herself in quilts and used candles she had in order to study throughout the night. When her parents discovered this they took her lamps, hid her clothes and …show more content…
She hid under the male name “M. LeBlanc”. Her decision to identify herself as a man to prove her worth in a male-dominated field of mathematics was worthwhile. Fighting against social statuses she rose to the top becoming an equal collaborator with male mathematicians toward the end of her career. She also used her male name when a paper was assigned. Legrance discovered the paper and was astonished and recognized the abilities of Germain and began to help and encourage her. In 1809 the French Academy of Sciences offered a prize for a mathematical account of the phenomena exhibited in experiments on vibrating plates conducted by the German physicist, Ernst F.F. Chladi. In 1811, she submitted an anonymous memoir, but the prize was not awarded. The competition was reopened twice more, one in 1813 and again in 1816, and she submitted a memoir on each occasion. Her third memoir, with which she finally won the prize, treated vibrations of general curved as well as plane surfaces and was published privately in