Sophie Germain

To this mathematician, physicist and philosopher we owe the discovery of a type of numbers that bear her name: the prime numbers of Sophie Germain . It is a set of prime numbers whose double increased by one unit is also a prime number.

If n is prime, 2 n + 1 will also be prime . Let’s check it out:

2 is prime. Substituting n for 2 in the formula we obtain: 2 x 2 + 1 = 5. Indeed, 5 is also prime.

With the 11. 2 x 11 + 1 = 23. Bingo!

With 53. 2 x 53 + 1 = 107

Marie Sophie Germain was born in 1776 in Paris (France) into a bourgeois family, her father was a goldsmith. He soon became interested in the scientific world and focused especially on the study of physics. He was self-taught, since his parents were opposed at first to develop a professional career in science. He finally got access to education by posing as a man, under the pseudonym Antoine Auguste LeBlanc.

Although he worked on remarkable scientific research, he could not make a professional living from it and had to financially depend on his family for his entire life.

died in Paris in 1831 due to breast cancer.

In addition to Germain’s prime numbers, mathematics also developed the famous identity of Sophie Germain :