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Anna Barbara Reinhart (12 July 1730 – 5 January 1796), was a Swiss mathematician. She was considered an internationally respected mathematician of her era.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reinhart, Anna Barbara 1730 births 1796 deaths 18th-century Swiss people Swiss mathematicians Swiss women mathematicians 18th-century Swiss mathematicians 18th-century women scientists 18th-century Swiss women Women letter writers
Anna Barbara Reinhart (12 July 1730 – 5 January 1796), was a Swiss mathematician. She was considered an internationally respected mathematician of her era.
Biography
Anna Barbara Reinhart was the third child and first daughter of Councilor Salomon Reinhart (1693 - 1761) and Anna Steiner. Her childhood was overshadowed by an accident when she fell off her horse at a wedding party, which caused her to be confined her to her bed for significant periods of time. Her physician, Dr. Johann Heinrich Hegner, however, noticed her aptitude for mathematics and began to teach her. Henceforth, she studied mathematics using the books ofLeonhard Euler
Leonhard Euler ( , ; 15 April 170718 September 1783) was a Swiss mathematician, physicist, astronomer, geographer, logician and engineer who founded the studies of graph theory and topology and made pioneering and influential discoveries in ma ...
, Gabriel Cramer
Gabriel Cramer (; 31 July 1704 – 4 January 1752) was a Genevan mathematician. He was the son of physician Jean Cramer and Anne Mallet Cramer.
Biography
Cramer showed promise in mathematics from an early age. At 18 he received his doctorate ...
, Pieter van Musschenbroek
Pieter van Musschenbroek (14 March 1692 – 19 September 1761) was a Dutch scientist. He was a professor in Duisburg, Utrecht, and Leiden, where he held positions in mathematics, philosophy, medicine, and astronomy. He is credited with the inven ...
and Jérôme Lalande
Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande (; 11 July 1732 – 4 April 1807) was a French astronomer, freemason and writer.
Biography
Lalande was born at Bourg-en-Bresse (now in the département of Ain) to Pierre Lefrançois and Marie‐Anne‐Gab ...
.
Reinhart corresponded with several mathematicians of the period, such as Christoph Jezler, and also received them as guests. She was active as a teacher of mathematics and was the instructor of Ulrich Hegner and Heinrich Bosshard von Rümikon among others. It is said that she edited the works of several of her contemporaries and wrote a manuscript commenting on the ''Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
'' by Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a "natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...
, however her comments were lost after her death, but her letters to Christoph Jezler were preserved.
Several contemporaries commended Reinhart in their work, such as Daniel Bernoulli
Daniel Bernoulli FRS (; – 27 March 1782) was a Swiss mathematician and physicist and was one of the many prominent mathematicians in the Bernoulli family from Basel. He is particularly remembered for his applications of mathematics to mechan ...
who praised her for expanding and improving the pursuit curve as discussed by Pierre Louis Maupertuis
Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (; ; 1698 – 27 July 1759) was a French mathematician, philosopher and man of letters. He became the Director of the Académie des Sciences, and the first President of the Prussian Academy of Science, at the ...
.
Reinhart died in 1796 at the age of 66 from gout and the consequences of her childhood accident, from which never fully recovered.
Legacy
In 2003, a street was named after her in her hometownWinterthur
, neighboring_municipalities = Brütten, Dinhard, Elsau, Hettlingen, Illnau-Effretikon, Kyburg, Lindau, Neftenbach, Oberembrach, Pfungen, Rickenbach, Schlatt, Seuzach, Wiesendangen, Zell
, twintowns = Hall in Tirol (Austria), La ...
in Zurich, Switzerland.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reinhart, Anna Barbara 1730 births 1796 deaths 18th-century Swiss people Swiss mathematicians Swiss women mathematicians 18th-century Swiss mathematicians 18th-century women scientists 18th-century Swiss women Women letter writers