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1718 – 1799Milan, Italy
Maria Gaetana Agnesi
Calculus, explained clearly for the youngest reader.
A short story
She wrote Instituzioni analitiche, the first textbook that taught differential and integral calculus together, written for young students. Pope Benedict XIV named her honorary professor at the University of Bologna; she was the second woman in Europe to hold a university chair. The curve now called the Witch of Agnesi (a mistranslation: she called it the versiera, meaning turning curve) is in every calculus textbook today.
In their own words
I propose to make plain certain difficulties which have either escaped the notice of others or have not been fully cleared up by them.
Paraphrased from Agnesi's preface to Instituzioni analitiche, 1748.
The lab their idea turned into
Tangent Lab
Find the slope of any parabola of the form , at any point, just by looking.
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