What Did Hypatia Contribute to Math?
Hypatia contributed in many ways to math, with one of her contributions being that she edited the work on The Conics of Apollonius. This is the concept that developed ideas of parabolas, hyperbolas and ellipses. With her contribution in this book, Hypatia made the concepts easier for people to understand, thus enabling the work survive through many centuries.
Hypatia was one of the first young women in her time to teach and study philosophy, mathematics and astronomy. She was regarded to be an astronomer and mathematician in her own right, writing commentaries and teaching students from her home. Her public lectures were very popular and attracted huge crowds.
Hypatia’s intellect was nurtured by some of the best minds in the land, which enabled her to steer towards independence. Over time, she became a public speaker and often followed her father’s library faculty. Hypatia did work on conic sections and algebraic equations. Even though she was linked to a host of men, she never married and chose to lead a celibate life, perhaps keeping with the ideas on the abolishment of the family system, says the Smithsonian Magazine.
