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ELA 4: Focus on the Lives of Women in History: Hypatia 25 Views


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Description:

Say "Hi!" to Hypatia. A mathematician and astronomer from way back in 350 who also happened to be a woman. Oh and don't literally say "Hi." to her, she's not there...no matter what you think  you're seeing right now.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:05

[Dino and Coop singing]

00:13

Go ahead and picture the most typical math nerd imaginable.

00:17

Maybe you're envisioning a scrawny, four-eyed dweeb straight out of some '80s movie. [Guy thinking of a nerd in a library]

00:20

Or maybe you went to the more historic route, imagining a famous mathematician like Fibonacci

00:24

or Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein. [Pictures of the famous people]

00:27

But whether you pictured a Hollywood geek or a historical nerd, it's safe to say that

00:31

you probably pictured... a man.

00:33

But that's not because there haven’t been a ton of super talented and geeky female math

00:36

nerds throughout history – it's just that we don't often hear about them. [Pictures of female 'nerds']

00:40

Until now… Meet Hypatia, a mathematician,

00:43

astronomer, philosopher and teacher who was born in Alexandria, Egypt in the year 350, [Coop and Dino pointing at a blackboard]

00:49

which was… a really long time ago.

00:52

Meaning that things were awfully different back then. Like…people didn't feel it was [Men only sign]

00:56

all important to educate women. [Angry women walking away]

00:57

Luckily Hypatia, had a cool dad who went against the grain and thought that women [Guy wearing 'Worlds Coolest Dad' cap]

01:01

should learn just like men.

01:03

This cool dad's name was Theon. He was a professor of math at the University of Alexandria, and

01:08

a great thinker in his own right. And, of course, he taught Hypatia everything he knew. [Coop pointing at a blackboard]

01:13

His daughter’s mind developed quickly. Spending a lot of time outdoors, she developed a passion [Hypatia looking down a telescope]

01:17

for astronomy…

01:18

… and debates with her father about the meaning of life…

01:20

… led her to become an avid philosopher, too.

01:23

In other words, their Father-Daughter bonding time was less “ice cream and a trip to the [Hypatia and her father on the beach]

01:27

beach” and more “arguing about really complicated stuff all the time.”

01:30

But hey, it worked for them.

01:32

Not only was Hypatia an astronomer, mathematician, philosopher and teacher, but she was an inventor

01:37

on top of everything else.

01:39

She invented the astrolabe, an elaborate instrument used to study the sky. [Diagram of an astrolabe]

01:44

Just take one look at it and you know she was smart, because that thing looks confusing. [Picture of an astrolabe]

01:48

Hypatia was a memorable teacher, too, influencing many students who went on to become great thinkers. [Hypatia teaching a class]

01:54

So there you have it – women can be giant nerds, too! Equality for all nerd-dom! [Girls wearing nerdy glasses in a science lab]

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