Pandrosion facts for kids

Pandrosion of Alexandria (Greek: Πανδροσιον) was a smart mathematician who lived a long time ago in a city called Alexandria. She lived in the 300s AD. Another famous mathematician, Pappus of Alexandria, wrote about her in his book, Mathematical Collection. Pandrosion is known for finding a way to solve a difficult math problem called doubling the cube.

Many experts today believe Pandrosion was a woman. If this is true, she would be one of the earliest known women to contribute to mathematics, even before Hypatia.

Pandrosion's Math Discoveries

Pandrosion is famous for creating a special way to find answers to the problem of doubling the cube. This problem asks how to build a new cube that has exactly twice the volume of an original cube. Her method also helped find cube roots, which are like finding what number you multiply by itself three times to get another number (for example, the cube root of 8 is 2, because 2x2x2=8).

Her method was a "recursive geometric" solution. This means it used shapes and steps that repeated, but it worked in three dimensions, not just on a flat surface.

Another mathematician, Pappus, thought her method didn't have a perfect mathematical "proof" (a way to show it's always true). Even though Pappus didn't directly say the method was Pandrosion's, he wrote about it when talking about mistakes made by her students.

Pandrosion also found a correct and exact way to figure out something called the geometric mean. This is a special kind of average. Her method was simpler than the one Pappus used.

Was Pandrosion a Woman?

For a long time, many people thought Pandrosion was a man. This happened because of a translation of Pappus's book from Greek into Latin in 1878 by Friedrich Hultsch. The original Greek book used a feminine word when talking about Pandrosion. But Hultsch thought this was a mistake and changed it to a masculine word in his translation. Many scholars after him followed his lead.

However, in 1988, a new English translation of Pappus's book by Alexander Raymond Jones showed that the original feminine word was probably not a mistake. More recent experts agree with Jones. They now believe that Pandrosion was indeed a woman.

Pandrosion and Hypatia

Hypatia is often called the first woman to make important contributions to mathematics. But Pappus, who wrote about Pandrosion, died before Hypatia was even born. This means Pandrosion likely lived before Hypatia. So, Pandrosion could be an even earlier female mathematician than Hypatia.

Pappus also said that Pandrosion was a math teacher. He only wrote about men being her students. But some historians, like Edward J. Watts, think that Hypatia might have known about Pandrosion, or even known her personally.