Hypatia: The Murdered Mathematician
Series looking at events and characters from science history. Naomi Alderman's story is of Hypatia - the mathematician murdered by a mob in Alexandria.
Naomi Alderman's tale is a murder mystery, the story of Hypatia, the mathematician murdered by a mob in the learned city of Alexandria, around the year 415 CE. Hypatia was a communicator of science, tackling difficult maths and teaching it to her students. This was incredibly important work. It was enough, at the time, to make her Alexandria's pre-eminent mathematician, and probably therefore the leading mathematician in the world.
And there's historical evidence that Hypatia made some discoveries and innovations of her own. She invented a new and more efficient method of long division. In a time before electronic calculators, the actual business of doing sums was an arduous part of engineering or astronomy, and any improvement in efficiency was very welcome.
All quite innocent science, so why did Hypatia end up being murdered by a mob? Natalie Haynes presenter of "Natalie Haynes Stands Up For The Classics" tells the inside story to Naomi Alderman. And Professor Edith Hall discusses Hypatia's legacy.
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Broadcasts
- Wed 4 Jul 2018 21:00成人快手 Radio 4
- Thu 23 Aug 2018 23:30成人快手 Radio 4
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Science Stories
Surprising stories from the history of science told by Naomi Alderman and Philip Ball.