he study of mathematics, her most famousbeing her work on conic sections. A conic section is when a person divides cones intodifferent parts using planes. Because she edited a book written by Apollpnius so well, herwork survived all the way up until today. Her concepts later developed into what is todaycalled, hyperbolas, parabolas, and ellipses. Hypatia died a very tragic death in 415 AD. Because she was a woman in thefield of mathematics and science, many rumors were spread about her. One of theChristian leaders named Cyril heard of these rumors and because he did not like the civilgovernor of Alexandria, where Hypatia lived, he made Hypatia a target. She was veryrespected and he knew that killing her would definitely hurt the city. On her way homeone night, she was attacked by a mob and literally skinned with oyster shells. Some sayshe died for the love of mathematics(Adair, 1995).Maria Gaetana Agnesi 1718-1799Maria Gaetana Agnesi was not really considered a mathematician in her time. Butnow that some people look back, she made a very significant contribution to the world ofmathematics. She practiced mathematics during the Renaissance in Italy. During thistime, it was considered an honor to be an educated woman. So Maria was both looked upto and considered a prodigy by the time she was very young. This could be attributed tothe fact that her father was an upstanding mathematician and professor in Milan, Italy. He often had lectures and seminars at his house for people to come and hear about math. She liked to listen to these lectures which may have sparked her interest in mathematics.There are two accomplishments that Maria is accredited with. Her first is herbook that she got published called Analytical Institutions, which was about integralcalculus. Some say that it was originally written for her younger brothers, to aide them inmath. Now that the book has been translated, many mathematicians are using her workand...
