11Jan2022

Hypatia of alexandria when was she born

It was then rebuilt. By , when the Roman Empire split and Alexandria became part of the eastern half, the city was beset by fighting among Christians, Jews and pagans. The last remnants likely disappeared, along with the museum, in , when the archbishop Theophilus acted on orders from the Roman emperor to destroy all pagan temples.

Theophilus tore down the temple of Serapis, which may have housed the last scrolls, and built a church on the site. Theon taught mathematics and astronomy to his daughter, and she collaborated on some of his commentaries. She was a mathematician and astronomer in her own right, writing commentaries of her own and teaching a succession of students from her home.

Letters from one of these students, Synesius, indicate that these lessons included how to design an astrolabe, a kind of portable astronomical calculator that would be used until the 19th century. Her student Synesius would become a bishop in the Christian church and incorporate Neoplatonic principles into the doctrine of the Trinity. Her public lectures were popular and drew crowds. Her association with him would eventually lead to her death.

One of his first actions was to close and plunder the churches belonging to the Novatian Christian sect. With Cyril the head of the main religious body of the city and Orestes in charge of the civil government, a fight began over who controlled Alexandria. Most historians believe that Hypatia surpassed her father's knowledge at a young age. However, while Hypatia was still under her father's discipline, he also developed for her a physical routine to ensure for her a healthy body as well as a highly functional mind.

In her education, Theon instructed Hypatia on the different religions of the world and taught her how to influence people with the power of words. He taught her the fundamentals of teaching, so that Hypatia became a profound orator.

People from other cities came to study and learn from her. Hypatia's studies included astronomy, astrology, and mathematics.

References in letters by Synesius, one of Hypatia's students, credit Hypatia with the invention of the astrolabe, a device used in studying astronomy. However, other sources date this instrument back at least a century earlier.

Claudius Ptolemy wrote extensively on the projection used on the plane astrolabe, and Hypatia's father wrote an astrolabe treatise that was the basis for much of what was written later in the Middle Ages.

Hypatia did teach about astrolabes as Synesius had an instrument made that was arguably a form of astrolabe. Hypatia was known more for the work she did in mathematics than in astronomy, primarily for her work on the ideas of conic sections introduced by Apollonius. She edited the work On the Conics of Apollonius , which divided cones into different parts by a plane. This concept developed the ideas of hyperbolas, parabolas, and ellipses.

With Hypatia's work on this important book, she made the concepts easier to understand, thus making the work survive through many centuries. Hypatia was the first woman to have such a profound impact on the survival of early thought in mathematics. Hypatia lived in Alexandria when Christianity started to dominate over the other religions.

In the early 's, riots broke out frequently between the different religions. Her notes on math and astronomy helped modern mathematicians and astronomers come up with advanced theories that are still used today.