Практикум для подготовки к экзамену по английскому языку (для студентов математического факультета I и II курсов). Жилина Л.В. - 8 стр.

credits her uncle Peter for first sparking her curiosity in mathematics.    unexpectedly. It was during this period of sorrow that Sofia and
He took an interest in Sofia and found time to discuss numerous ab-         Vladimir fell in love. Their marriage produced one daughter. While at
stractions and mathematical concepts with her. When she was fourteen        home, Sofia neglected her work in mathematics but instead developed
years old she taught herself trigonometry in order to understand the        her literary skills. She tried her hand at fiction, theater reviews, and
optics section of physics book that she was reading. The author of the      science articles for a newspaper.
book and also her neighbor, Professor Tyrtov, was extremely im-                     In 1880, Sofia returned to work in mathematics with a new fer-
pressed with her capabilities and convinced her father to allow her to      vor. She presented a paper on Abelian integrals at a scientific confer-
go off to school in St. Petersburg to continue her studies.                 ence and was very well received. Once again she was faced with the
       After concluding her secondary schooling, Sofia was determined       dilemma of finding employment doing what she loved most – mathe-
to continue her education at the university level. However, the closest     matics. She decided to return to Berlin, also home to Weierstrass. She
universities open to women were in Switzerland, and young, unmarried        was not there long before she learned of Vladimir's death. He had
women were not permitted to travel alone. To resolve the problem            committed suicide when all of his business ventures had collapsed.
Sofia entered into a marriage of convenience to Vladimir Kovalevsky         Sofia's grief threw her into her work more passionately than ever.
in September 1868. The couple remained in Petersburg for the first few              Then, in 1883, Sofia's luck took a turn for the better. She re-
months of their marriage and then travelled to Heidelburg where Sofia       ceived an invitation from an acquaintance and former student of Weier-
gained a small fame. People were enthralled by the quiet Russian girl       strass, Gosta Mittag-Leffler, to lecture at the University of Stockholm.
with an outstanding academic reputation.                                    In the beginning it was only a temporary position, but at the and of a
       In 1870, Sofia decided that she wanted to pursue studies under       five year period, Sofia had more than proved her value to the university.
Karl Weierstrass at the University of Berlin. Weierstrass was consid-       Then came a series of great accomplishments. She gained a tenured
ered one of the most renowned mathematicians of his time, and at first      position at the university, was appointed an editor for a mathematics
he did not take Sofia seriously. Only after evaluating a problem set he     journal, published her first paper on crystals, and in 1885, was also ap-
had given her did he realize the genius at his hand. He immediately set     pointed Chair of Mechanics. At the same time, she co-wrote a play,
to work privately tutoring her because the university still would not       "The Struggle for Happiness," with her friend, Anna Leffler.
permit women to attend. Sofia studied under Weierstrass for four years.             In 1887, Sofia again received devastating news. The death of her
She is quoted as having said, "These studies had the deepest possible       sister, Anya, was particularly hard on Sofia because the two had always
influence on my entire career in mathematics. They determined finally       been very close. Fortunately, it was not long afterward that Sofia
and irrevocably the direction I was to follow in my later scientific        achieved "her greatest personal triumph". In 1888, she entered her pa-
work: all my work has been done precisely in the spirit of Weierstrass".    per, "On the Rotation of a Solid Body about a Fixed point," in a com-
At the end of her four years she had produced three papers in the hopes     petition for the Prix Bordin by the French Academy of Science and
of being awarded a degree. The first of these, "On the Theory of Partial    won. "Prior to Sofia Kovalevsky's [Sofia Kovalevskaya] work the only
Differential Equations," was even published in Crelle's journal, a tre-     solutions to the motion of a rigid body about fixed point had been de-
mendous honor for an unknown mathematician.                                 veloped for the two cases where the body is symmetric". In her paper,
       In July of 1874, Sofia Kovalevskaya was granted a Ph.D. from         Sofia developed the theory for an unsymmetrical body where the center
the university of Gottingen. Yet even with such a prestigious degree        of its mass is not on an axis in the body. The paper was highly regarded
and the help of Weierstrass, who had grown quite fond of his pupil, she     that the prize money was increased from 3000 to 5000 francs.
was not able to find employment. She and Vladimir decided to return                 Also at this time, a new man entered her life. Maxim Kovalesky
to her family in Palobino. Shortly after her return home, her father died   came to Stockholm for a series of lectures. There he met Sofia, and the

                                   15                                                                          16