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Mary Somerville
Mary Somerville was born on 26 December 1780 in Jedburgh Scotland. Mary was the daughter of William George Fairfax, a naval officer, who became vice admiral, and his second wife. The family's home was in Burntisland, Fife, Scotland. She was the fifth of seven children, but three of them died very young. -
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Infancy
At the age of ten he attended school for a year, and when he returned home his passion for reading was awakened. Despite her parents' efforts to train her in housework at a girls' school, she had the support of one of her uncles who encouraged her to learn Latin.2 -
Pre-adolescence
When she was about thirteen, the family moved to Edinburgh, where she continued her classes to complete her training as an upper-class lady, including sewing, piano lessons, and painting. It was her painting teacher, Alexander Nasmyth, who initiated her into the study of mathematics, realizing the young woman's interest in Euclid's elements when she explained a perspective problem to one of her students. -
The beginning of his love for mathematics
the young Mary devoted herself with great interest to the study of algebra in the books provided by her brother's tutor, although without neglecting her social life to satisfy her parents, at a time when the aspirations of young women should focus on getting a good husband to provide them with security. -
Marriage
He married in 1804, when he was 24 years old. Her husband, Samuel Greig, was a naval officer who failed to understand his wife's passion for mathematics. -
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Widow
Mary was widowed three years later, when she was already a mother of two. -
His first medal
She returned from London to Scotland, where through Professor John Playfair she came into contact with the mathematician William Wallace, with whom she collaborated in solving some problems, for which she was awarded a silver medal. -
Second marriage
In 1812 she married secondly William Somerville (inspector of hospitals), who understood and supported her interest in science. He went on to reside in Edinburgh, where he expanded his circle of friends among the scientists of the university, which made him interested in new disciplines, such as the Greek language, botany and geology. -
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The death of their children
In 1814 her eldest daughter and the only son from her second marriage died, and the family moved to London in 1816 when her husband was appointed Inspector of the Army Medical Board, which made it easier for him to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. -
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Laplace's Celestial Mechanics
Lord Brougham made a request on behalf of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge for Mary Somerville to translate Laplace's Celestial Mechanics. Mary did not confine herself to translating the text from French into English, but gave a full explanation of the mathematical bases used by Laplace, which at that time had not yet been disseminated among scientists in Great Britain. The translation of the book was a great success in sales, and received numerous accolades. -
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The Connection of the Physical Sciences
In 1832 and 1833 he resided for a time in Paris, where he strengthened his ties with French scientists, and worked on his next book, The Connection of the Physical Sciences, published in 1834. His analysis of the perturbations of the orbit of Uranus, included in the sixth edition of the book (1842), is the origin of astronomer John Couch Adams's research that led to the discovery of Neptune in 1846. -
Royal Astronomical Society
Somerville was elected to the Royal Astronomical Society in 1835 (at the same time as Caroline Herschel). Honorary member of the Société de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle de Genève in 1834, that same year he became part of the Royal Academy of Ireland. -
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Widow
From 1838, William Somerville's health problems led the couple to move to live in southern Italy, in search of a better climate. Her husband died in 1860. During the 34 years she resided in Italy, Mary published mathematical works, which influenced the work of James Clerk Maxwell, as well as in 1848, her Physical Geography, a treatise that continued well into the 20th century. -
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Measures
in 1857 she was made a member of the American Society of Geography and Statistics and the Italian Geographical Society in 1870.
In 1869 she was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society8 (known as the "Victory Medal").9 She was also elected to the American Philosophical Society. -
Death
In the last days of his life he wrote: "I am 92 years old..., my memory for ordinary events is weak, but not for mathematics or scientific experiences. I'm still able to read higher algebra books for four or five hours in the morning, and even solve problems."
He died in Naples in 1872.