CHAPTER V 

 WOMEN IN PHYSICS 



Physics, being one of the inductive sciences, received 

 little attention until modern times. True, the Greeks were 

 familiar with some of the fundamental facts of the me- 

 chanics of solids and fluids, and had some notions respect- 

 ing the various physical forces; but their knowledge of 

 what until recently was known as natural philosophy was 

 extremely limited. Aristotle, Pythagoras and Archimedes 

 were among the most successful investigators of their time 

 respecting the laws and properties of matter, and contrib- 

 uted materially to the advancement of knowledge regarding 

 the phenomena of the material universe ; but the sum total 

 of their information of what we now know as physics could 

 be embodied in a few pages. 



In view of the foregoing facts, we should not expect to 

 find women engaged in the study, much less in the teaching, 

 of physical science during ancient times. And yet, if we 

 are to credit Boccaccio, who bases his statements on those 

 of early Greek writers, there was at least one woman that 

 won distinction by her knowledge of natural philosophy 

 as early as the days of Socrates. In his work, De Laudibus 

 Mulierum, which treats of the achievements of some of the 

 illustrious representatives of the gentler sex, the genial 

 author of the Decameron gives special praise to one Arete 

 of Gyrene for the breadth and variety of her attainments. 

 She was the daughter of Aristippus, the founder of the 

 Cyrenaic school of philosophy, and is represented as being 

 a veritable prodigy of learning. For among her many 



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