Sophie Germain
Sophie Germain was born in Paris. As we have mentioned before, her family was quite wealthy. Her father was a merchant and later became director of the Bank of France. Sophie's interest in mathematics began during the French Revolution when she was 13 years old and confined to her home due to the danger caused by revolts in Paris. She initially received opposition from her parents and also the difficulties presented by the society for females to study. However, she had the opportunity to learn from books in her father’s library, so she spent a great deal of time in there. She read important scientists and one day she ran across a book in which the legend of Archimedes' death was recounted. This legend has it that during the invasion of his city by the Romans Archimedes was so engrossed in the study of a geometric figure in the sand that he failed to respond to the questioning of a Roman soldier. As a result, he was speared to death. This sparked Sophie's interest. If someone could be so engrossed in a problem as to ignore a soldier and then die for it, the subject must be interesting. Thus, she began her study of mathematics.