Pandrosion

Pandrosion of Alexandria was a mathematician in fourth-century-AD Alexandria, discussed in the Mathematical Collection of Pappus of Alexandria and known for having possibly developed an approximate method for doubling the cube. She is likely the earliest known female mathematician.

Contributions Doubling the cube is calculating a cube with double the volume of the another. alt=Figure representing two cubes: a green cube with an edge marked "1" and containing "V1 = 1³", an arrow pointing left, a larger blue cube with and edge marked "cubic root of 2" and cointaining "V2 = 2 ⋅ 1³". Pappus dedicated a section of his Collection to correcting what he perceives as errors in Pandrosion's students. Although Pappus does not directly state that the method is Pandrosion's, he includes in this section a method for calculating numerically accurate but approximate solutions to the problem of doubling the cube, or more generally of calculating cube roots. It is a "recursive geometric" solution, but three-dimensional rather than working within the plane. Pappus criticized this work as lacking a proper mathematical proof. Another method included in the same section, and potentially attributable in the same way indirectly to Pandrosion, is a correct and exact method for constructing the geometric mean, simpler than the method used by Pappus.

Name and gender The name Pandrosion is a diminutive of Pandrosos, the name of a daughter of the first king of Athens; it means "all-dewy". As such, it has been described as "not likely as a man's name".

When Friedrich Hultsch prepared his 1878 translation of Pappus's Collection from Greek into Latin, the manuscript of the Collection that he used referred to Pandrosion using a feminine form of address. Hultsch decided that this must have been a mistake, and referred to Pandrosion as masculine in his translation. However, the 1988 English translation of Pappus by Alexander Raymond Jones "argued convincingly" that the original feminine form was not a mistake, and more recent scholarship has followed Jones in taking the position that Pandrosion was a woman.

Hypatia has often been called the first woman to have contributed to mathematics, but Pappus died before the earliest suggested birth date of Hypatia. Therefore, Pandrosion is a likely candidate for an earlier female contributor to mathematics than Hypatia. Pandrosion was also described by Pappus as a teacher of mathematics, and although Pappus recorded only men among her students, Edward J. Watts suggests that Hypatia may have known of, or even known, Pandrosion.