Intro
Preface to the Second Edition
Preface to the First Edition
Acknowledgements
Contents
1 Unforgettable Childhood
Primary Education
Revolutionary Mathematicians
Coming of Age Through the Terror
Institut de France: Science Above All
2 Lessons from l'École Polytechnique
Lagrange's Lecture Notes 1797-1799
M. LeBlanc Metamorphoses into Mlle Germain
A Young Scholar Emerges
3 Sophie's Sublime Arithmetica
Number Theory: From Diophantus to Gauss
Sophie Germain and Carl Friedrich Gauss
How Napoléon's Invasion Led to Unmasking M. Le Blanc

Sophie Germain Tackles the Law of Quadratic Reciprocity
Gauss: Mathematical Astronomer
Gauss and Legendre: A Matter of Priority
4 Chladni and His Acoustic Experiments
The Prize of Mathematics, 1809
5 Euler and the Bernoullis
Euler and the Mechanics of Elastic Bodies
Foundation of Elasticity Theories
Sound and Vibrating Bodies
6 Germain and Her Biharmonic Equation
First Hypothesis
Second Attempt: More Disappointment
Paris in 1814
Winning the Grand Prix de Mathématiques
Confronting a Rival
The Germain-Lagrange Equation

7 Experiments with Vibrating Plates
Sophie Germain's Experimental Research
8 Elasticity Theory After Germain
Navier's Bending Equation
Cauchy and His Mathematical Formalism
Poisson and an Incorrect Prediction
Poisson-Germain-Navier Public Dispute
Kirchhoff's Plate Theory
Ritz Method to Model Chladni's Plates
9 Germain and Fermat's Last Theorem
Pierre de Fermat
Euler and Fermat's Theorems
Legendre Proposes a Contest to Prove FLT
Sophie Germain's Theorem
Unexpected Revelation
Germain's Research to Prove Fermat's Last Theorem

Fermat's Last Theorem After Germain
The Fermat-Wiles Theorem
Unsolved Problems in Number Theory
10 Pensées de Germain
11 Friends, Rivals, and Mentors
Introduction
Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855)
Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736-1813)
Adrien-Marie Legendre (1752-1833)
Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Fourier (1768-1830)
Siméon-Denis Poisson (1781-1840)
Claude-Louis-Marie-Henri Navier (1785-1836)
Jean-Baptiste Joseph Delambre (1749-1822)
Augustin-Louis Cauchy (1789-1857)
Guglielmo Libri, Count de Bagnano (1803-1869)
Leonhard Euler (1707-1783)

Archimedes of Syracuse (c. 287-212 B.C.)
12 The Last Years
Reaching Out to Gauss, One Last Time
Glorious Summer of 1830
Germain's Last Publications
13 Unanswered Questions
14 Princess of Mathematics
Women and Science Education
Sophie Germain Legacy
Germain-Gauss Correspondance
Sophie Germain Timeline
Illustration Credits
Bibliography
Index