Margherita Piazzola Beloch facts for kids

Margherita Piazzolla Beloch (born July 12, 1879, in Frascati – died September 28, 1976, in Rome) was a brilliant Italian mathematician. She studied interesting areas of math like algebraic geometry, algebraic topology, and photogrammetry.

Her Life Story

Margherita Beloch was the daughter of Karl Julius Beloch, a German historian who taught ancient history for 50 years at the Sapienza University of Rome. Her mother was Bella Bailey, an American.

Margherita loved mathematics and studied it at the Sapienza University of Rome. She wrote her final project, called a thesis, with help from Guido Castelnuovo. In 1908, she earned her degree with "Laude," which means "with honors," and "dignita' di stampa." This special honor meant her work was so good it deserved to be published! Her thesis, titled "On Birational Transformations In Space," was indeed published.

Her professor, Guido Castelnuovo, was very impressed with her skills. He offered her a job as his assistant, which she accepted. She worked there until 1919. After that, she moved to Pavia and then to Palermo, where she worked with Michele De Franchis, another important mathematician in Italy at that time.

In 1924, Margherita earned her "libera docenza." This was a special degree needed back then to become a professor. Just three years later, she became a full professor at the University of Ferrara. She taught there until she retired in 1955.

Her Amazing Math Work

Margherita Beloch was very interested in three main areas of science: algebraic geometry, algebraic topology, and photogrammetry.

Studying Shapes and Curves

After her thesis, she focused on classifying different types of algebraic surfaces. She looked at how lines could be arranged on these surfaces. Then, she moved on to studying rational curves that lie on surfaces. She discovered an important fact: "Hyperelliptic surfaces of rank 2 are special because they always have 16 rational curves."

She also helped with the theory of skew algebraic curves. For most of her life, she continued to study the shapes and properties of algebraic curves, whether they were flat or on curved surfaces. She wrote many papers about these topics.

Math and Paper Folding

Around 1940, Beloch became very interested in photogrammetry, which is about using photos to make measurements and maps. She also loved applying math to it.

Margherita Beloch is especially famous for her work on the mathematics of paper folding, also known as origami. She was likely the first person to officially describe a specific origami move. This move allows you to find the common lines that touch two parabolas (a type of curve) by folding paper.

Because of this, she showed how to find cubic roots (like finding the 'x' in x³=8) just by folding paper! This is amazing because you cannot do this using only a ruler and compass. The special folding move she used is now known as the Beloch fold.

See also

In Spanish: Margherita Piazzola Beloch para niños