History of Science and Mathematics Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for people interested in the history and origins of science and mathematics. It only takes a minute to sign up.

Sign up to join this community
Anybody can ask a question
Anybody can answer
The best answers are voted up and rise to the top

Explore our questions

5 votes
6 answers
2k views

What are some concepts/discoveries in mathematics and science that found practical application years after they had been formulated/discovered?

9 votes
3 answers
3k views

What is the origin of the $\hbar$ symbol?

1 vote
1 answer
109 views

The etymology of "radio waves"

2 votes
1 answer
112 views

How did Aristotle explain the motion of living things moving by themselves, and falling of objects, with his hypothesis of all motion needing a cause?

3 votes
1 answer
149 views

Were scientific discoveries ever inspired by art?

1 vote
0 answers
39 views

Poisson's laws for adiabatic processes

6 votes
2 answers
485 views

Was the sun assumed to be at rest aether frame?

18 votes
2 answers
7k views

What was different about Planck's quantization of light compared to Einstein's?

2 votes
0 answers
29 views

Understanding how Stern-Gerlach tests Bohr-Sommerfield Hypothesis

21 votes
12 answers
5k views

What are examples of serendipity in the history of the sciences and math?

4 votes
0 answers
78 views

On Bryce Seligman DeWitt's Name Change

7 votes
1 answer
259 views

When was the geometric structure of a water molecule discovered?

0 votes
0 answers
44 views

Did Einstein attribute a physical meaning to the affine connection in his unification models?

4 votes
0 answers
116 views

Did quantum mechanics solve any open problems related to the optical properties of solids?

Browse more Questions