Mary Somerville

She Made A Difference

Mary Somerville was a female scientist and mathematician long before women were supposed to be interested in math and science. She wasn’t intentionally highly educated by her parents because she was a girl, but she found she had a talent for mathematics and studied geometry in secret after her parents forbade her to do so. As an adult, Mary was commissioned to translate the algebra of the Mecanique Celeste into a more easily understood form and wrote several books herself on scientific subjects, including On the Connexion of Physical Science and Physical Geography. She was admired for both her excellent and understandable writing style and her keen observations and hypotheses about astronomy and mathematics, and her work led the discoveries of many other scientists. Mary was the co-first woman (along with Caroline Herschel) to be admitted to the Royal Astronomical Society, and she was awarded the Victoria Medal by…

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