Person: Pandrosion
Pandrosion of Alexandria was a Greek mathematician of the 4th century A.D. She developed an approximate method for doubling the cube. She lived earlier than Hypatia.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- We only know that Pandrosion was a female mathematician who flourished in the first half of the 4th century.
- The only reason that we have any information at all about Pandrosion is that she is mentioned in works by Pappus.
- Now the first question that it is necessary to tackle is whether Pandrosion was a man or a woman.
- Later work, however, has convincingly shown that this was an error and it now appears to be widely accepted by historians that Pandrosion was a woman.
- There still remains the question of whether Pandrosion made "a substantial contribution to the development of mathematics." As no writings by Pandrosion are extant, or are even referred by later Greek writers, this is in many ways an impossible question to answer.
- That no writings by Pandrosion come down to us today is, perhaps, not surprising since none of Hypatia's writings are known in the original.
- It is suggested that Pandrosion may have suffered from the unfair attack that Pappus made on her competence and this could well explain why later authors chose not to refer to her work.
Born about 300, possibly Alexandria, Egypt. Died about 360, possibly Alexandria, Egypt.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
African, Origin Egypt, Women
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
- Github:
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
