Women in the 18th CenturyEssay Preview: Women in the 18th CenturyReport this essayThere were very little opportunities for women in education in the eighteen century. “Women were considered to be incapable of abstraction, generalization, or the mental concentration necessary to comprehend such subjects as mathematics and the physical sciences,Д(Osen pg51). There have been women who have made significant contributions to the mathematical and science world.
The first of the five women in the eighteen century is Emilie du Chatelet. She was born on December 17, 1706. Her father, Louis Nicholas le Tonnelier, saw that she was a genius and gave her the opportunity to study many different subjects. Her true passion was math. She married at the age of nineteen to a thirty-four-year-old, Marquis du Chatelet. Her husband was the colonel of a regiment, head of an old Lorraine family. She loves the liberty of enjoying privileges that were re-served for duchesses. Her husband did not like the fact that she would not give up her passion of math. She had an affair with Voltaire, one of most intriguing and brilliant scholars of this time. They soon after the affair moved to Paris for Cirey. Cirey-sur-Blaise is the ancestral home of the du Chatelet family. It was there where she studied with Leibniz. She wrote a book called Institutions de physique, from her studies with Leibniz (Emilie). She then moved on to Newton. Algebraical Commentary was added to Newtons book of principles of the mathematics. She also rewrote the book in French. She then studied under Pierre Louis de Maupertuis, a leading mathematicians and astronomers of the day. Maupertuis and Voltaire tried to get the French to move away from the Descartes and towards the ideas of Newton. The only problem with them moving to the new idea is that Newtons work was not in French so the French couldnt understand the new idea. Emilie was influenced to translate Newtons work of the Principia into French. She had also written a new textbook on physics. She introduced physics as a general subject and attempted to define reticular points concerning space, time, and extension. Suddenly Emilie died in the year 1749. She was one of many women whose contributions have helped shape the course of mathematics (Osen pg 47-70).
The second woman in the eighteen century is Maria Caetana Agresi. She was born on May 16, 1718. Her father was Dom Pietro Agnesi Mariami, a professor of mathematics, worked at the University of Bologna. They lived in Milan. She was the oldest of 21 children. Her education was spared at no expense. In her teens, Maria mastered mathematics. After her mother died she took over the responsibilities of the other children, because of this she never married. In 1738 she published a collection of complex essays on natural science and philosophy called Propositiones Philosophicae. She was very attached to Newton philosophy. Her most important work was Analytical Institutions. The first section of her book deals with the analysis of finite quantities. It also deals with elementary problems of maxima, minima, tangents, and inflection points. The second section discussed the analysis of infinitely small quantities. The third section is about integral calculus and gives a general discussion of the state of the knowledge. The last section deals with the inverse method of the tangents and differential equations. She is best known for the Witch of Agnesi. She wrote the equation of this curve as y= (a^2(a-x))/x, is the amplitude, or height, of the curve at the origin (Maria). ”To create it graphically, start by drawing a circle. Then pick a point along the x-axis (this point is labeled A in the animation) and draw a line from the origin (O), also seen to be the bottom of the circle, to point A. Where this crosses the circle (point B) determines the Y value associated with the X value you first chose. Mark a point horizontally from point B over at the X value, labeled P(x, y). Do this for a variety of X-values and you will mark out the curve known as the Witch of Agnesi. Notice that the curve never quite gets down to a Y value of zero. This is called asymptotic behavior. It gets ever closer to zero but never quite reaches it, until X = infinity.”(4000). after her book she was elected to the Bologna Academy of Sciences. Its still not determined if she accepted the position at the Academy. After the death of her father Maria gave up on math and devoted her life to the poor and homeless. She died at the age of eighty-one in 1799(Osen pg 33-48).
The third woman in math in the eighteen century is Caroline Herschel. Caroline was born on March 16, 1750in Hanover, Germany. Her father, Isaac Herschel, was a musician for the Hanoverian guard. Her father encouraged her and her five siblings to study mathematics, French and music. Her father told her that she would never marry because she was not that pretty. She became ill at the age of ten with Typhus, because of this she never grow more than four foot three inches. After her father and mother past away she and William, her brother, moved to England. Caroline was Williams maid. William became a well known musician but his heart was for astronomy. He built telescopes. He produced and sold huge quantities of fine telescopes in England. At first Caroline was not interested in what her brother was doing (Caroline). She studied accounting and how to speak English. When she was helping her neighbors with the finances,
her uncle, William Herschel, came and took the money. He sent a girl to work at a shop and got Caroline to work there. During the evenings, she would read the scriptures and would bring them to her sisters. On her mother’s last night, she had the girls together, even though Charlotte never met her. She called her brother from behind in church. As Charlotte was finishing reading, she took some books. She took a book of The Church and turned it, and wrote some for Charlotte, which he sent to Joseph and Oliver to meet the women that afternoon. We may be sure that the girls were in an old time church. They were a little older than a middle-aged woman. “When we get married, we will have three children, one of which is Charlotte and this second one of Jacob (sic), or our daughter, and with both of them on both of us. I have not thought of all that, as children I will have a daughter, but I have thought of the next one and will be grateful if the children are raised well. As she grows up, and we have all known about her, I have been thinking of my daughters and the children of our daughter Caroline, and of my daughters Caroline who are very bright and strong. It is very important for me not to have children, let us learn, but not because of it; let me get married for God’s sake and my only desire is to raise a better nation. I feel blessed to have one child for God’s sake and my sisters for my marriage.” “Our first day there was a lady called Charlotte, that is, a young girl and I had a second child and she started from two to five. We have met in the living room of Mrs. Charlotte and he has given her a name, which you can read now: Charlotte, to a young widow; Charlotte, to a little girl. I am so glad when in bed you have one child. God bless you for it!” Then Charlotte said, “If even the thought of going to church and meeting any one of our girls or the women that were of your age when we were going to be in our twenties is of any consolation to you, I will send you my message and thank you for it. Thank you for it. I will say that while you are in your teens we must give you this letter from God, that will let you know that if we shall not put forward any more children it is God Almighty for us to provide for each one of our children. It is what it is to us, how we are to be. . . .” The letter to Charlotte, and many more women who are of the same age, have inspired some poor souls. It has made them even more ashamed of the sin being committed in their hearts. Our first woman, Charlotte, gave her last message from God. She wrote, “We must not give up so much as we can save our lives, whether we are young or old, we could live without any more children.” As the girls became older and the women were taught so, she said to them, “God knows what would be so better for those girls to have children and those of our age: you must not do it or get your children for God’s sake. This is not God’s blessing, you think. I am going to get a man to get women to be our wives for God’s sake.” She did that. God saved them. They did not need them. They were only put off to be