# All Questions

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### Mikhail Ostrogradsky and non-Euclidean Geometry

I read in a book of popularization of Mathematics that in 1830 Mikhail Ostrogradsky wrote, about non-Euclidean Geometry, that he did not see why anyone would care about that, since the world is ...
21 views

### I have fermats had mine poof can you help to publish in jeans I not personally mathematicians d I anurasiri sir LankaD

I have fermats had mine poof can you help to publish in jeans I not personally mathematicians d I anurasiri sir LankaD
29 views

### Why is Einstein-Hilbert action called Einstein-Hilbert action?

I understand that Einstein was the first one who came up with Einstein's equations, but did Einstein do anything to deserve his share of name in the action Hilbert found? Who first called the action ...
57 views

### Where did the false “equal transit-time” explanation of lift originate from?

It's supposedly a "widely circulated" false claim that wings generate lift because of their asymmetric shape, forcing air above to travel faster so that they meet up on the trailing edge at the same ...
63 views

### How did Hagoromo Fulltouch chalk gain so much popularity among mathematicians in the West?

I recently read Hagoromo, the 'Rolls Royce of chalk,' continues writing its legacy in South Korea article recently, and was fascinated by the huge amount of attention this specific chalk is getting. ...
72 views

### Does anyone know of any examples of the Magnus effect in a real battle?

I've read a lot about the Magnus effect altering the trajectories of cannonballs and musketballs. Robins noticed it with Musket balls and Magnus with canonballs, but presuably they weren't the first ...
78 views

### How did Milton Babitt teach math at Princeton and research math, without an undergraduate degree in math?

Even if Babbitt taught merely elementary calculus, don't universities hire someone with at least an undergraduate degree in math to teach it? I quote Schoenblog.com: Babbitt came to teach at ...
73 views

### Origin of the “law of quadratic reciprocity”

Today, "reciprocity" is the standard mathematical word used for quadratic reciprocity and its generalizations. I found that the name dates back to no later than 1832, when a paper of Dirichlet (...
62 views

### Reference for history of physics with description of mathematical models

I am interested in some reference text, for example, textbook that would describe going from old times (say, Greece) till modern times: 1) definitions of units and measurements 2) describing ...
43 views

### Did Isaac Barrow also discover the other thing about the inverse relation between area and tangent?

Barrow surely discovered that the tangent to the area curve of a function at a point equals the value of the function at that point. Also, I’ve seen geometric proofs of this. But did he also discover ...
43 views

### Asymptotically Periodic Potentials

Who came up with the idea of solving elliptic equations with periodic potentials and from there solving elliptic equations with asymptotically periodic potentials? I heard it was Pierre Louis Lions, ...
133 views

### Did anyone with formal medical education become a known theoretical physicist?

Was there someone in history who became a theoretical physicist after getting a medical education and later taking interest in physics? I am a medical student studying graduate mathematics, and ...
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### Non-dte differential element

I have come to talk about the notation $\delta W$ or d with a bar W for the work in Thermodynamics. Few years ago, one of my teachers told me about the d with a bar notation. Few years later, I ...
57 views

### Is there a biography of Robert Risch?

The Risch algorithm for computing symbolic integrals was developed by Robert Risch in the 1968-70 time frame. Based on the German Wikipedia article, I know that Risch was awarded a Ph.D. by U.C. ...
67 views

### Why was Indicial equations named so?

In ODE, in Frobenius method, there's an equation called "Indicial Equation." Is there any particular contextual/historical reason that it is named so?
108 views

### Did it take 378 pages to prove 1+1=2?

Is it it true that Russel and Whitehead in their Principia Mathematica took 378 pages to prove 1+1=2? Does that indicate any flaw in the formal proof and the disregard for empirical evidence?
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### Who invented the gradient descent algorithm?

In connection to the question "Who invented the gradient?", I want to know who invented the gradient descent algorithm?
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### What is the idea behind the naming of the term “displacement current” in electromagnetism?

I'd like to get an explanation why Maxwell chose the name "displacement current" for the term $\mu_0\epsilon_0\frac{\partial E}{\partial t}$ he added to Ampere's law (Maxwell's correction). I'm ...
565 views

### On the history of Haar measure

Haar measure is a well-known concept in measure theory. Many books are perfectly dedicated to present its existence and uniqueness such as measure theory for D. Cohn. I am looking for a good ...
94 views

### When/Why did Septagon change to Heptagon?

I graduated high school in 1980, and as a second career, am helping HS students with their math. I just finished my 6th year of this, and have just one question about the change noted in the title. ...
82 views

### Is there any general difference between British, French and German mathematicians?

I am recently learning about teaching the history of mathematics. Gradually, impressions about mathematicians in different countries develops in my mind. I just want to ask, whether it is helpful to ...
78 views

### Does Heliocentrism predate Copernicus?

I have seen this mentioned on the interwebs a few times. people have mentioned that some Greek thinkers and Islamic astronomers came up with heliocentrism before Copernicus and that Copernicus copied ...
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### How did Gibbs discover Gibbs entropy?

I have read and I think that I agree with the idea that if we have to choose probability distribution for an unknown system then it is a good idea to choose a distribution that has the least bias. I ...
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### Difference between Perrin's and J. J. Thomson's experiment

In J. J. Thomson's paper (Phil. Mag. S. 5. Vol. 44. No. 269. Oct. 1897) concerned with cathode rays, Thomson writes, that the experiment by Perrin that supposedly proves that cathode rays are made of ...
96 views

I once heard a cautionary tale about the dangers of the observer-expectancy effect. It was at least presented as a true example from the history of science, but I'm having trouble identifying the ...
58 views

### Was there a more intuitive early proof of the generalized mean value theorem?

I am interested in the early proofs of the theorem. It is often called Cauchy mean value theorem, so perhaps Cauchy proved it first. In all the proofs that I have seen we construct a contrived ...
546 views

### How did J. J. Thomson establish the particle nature of the electron?

In its article about how the electron was discovered, Wikipedia says that Thomson and his students performed experiments which suggested that cathode rays were negatively charged "particles". But even ...