Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Sophie Germain Activity, Cynthia J. Huffman Ph.D.

Open Educational Resources - Math

This activity was originally created for a Women in Mathematics course to provide students, who may not have had an abstract algebra class, with a small taste of some basic mathematics connected to the work of Sophie Germain on Fermat’s Last Theorem. The activity has the students find all primes less than 100 using the Sieve of Eratosthenes and then determine which of those are Germain primes. The activity could also be used in other courses, such as a general education mathematics course or a history of mathematics course.