Questions tagged [biographical-details]
For questions about the details of a particular scientist's life.
234
questions
0
votes
0answers
13 views
What was Lagrange's contribution to the Knights Tour Problem?
Did Lagrange made any noteworthy contribution to the Knights tour problem?
0
votes
0answers
20 views
Did Lagrange finish his law degree during the 1750s?
According to this Lagrange enrolled in the University of Turin to study law in the 1750 but eventually shifted to math.
1
vote
0answers
30 views
Did Lagrange started studying mathematics in 1752 or 1753?
Some articles indicate that he started studying maths "after reading an article by Edmund Halley" in 1753 but in this paper it is claimed that he started studying mathematics in 1752
0
votes
0answers
56 views
What did Hans Bethe think of von Neumann's quantum logic?
Nobel laureate Hans Bethe was a friend of mathematician-physicist John von Neumann, and he once said:
"I have sometimes wondered whether a brain like von Neumann's does not indicate a species ...
4
votes
1answer
222 views
Gauss on philosophers
Carl Friedrich Gauss said:
When a philosopher says something that is true then it is trivial. When he says something that is not trivial then it is false.
On one occasion I read that supposedly ...
4
votes
1answer
94 views
Jean-Christophe Yoccoz (May 29, 1957 – September 3, 2016)
Outstanding French mathematician had also his Brasilian chapter in his life (or two chapters?). I'd like to know more.
The en.wikipedia tells us that Yoccoz was born, raised and educated in France,
"...
3
votes
0answers
81 views
Did Heisenberg defend that Germany should rule Europe?
The following has been attributed to the German physicist Werner Heisenberg:
History legitimizes Germany to rule Europe and later the world. Only a nation that rules ruthlessly can maintain itself. ...
3
votes
1answer
72 views
Where to get more biographical information about Fritz Peter?
Fritz Peter (1899–1949) is known mainly as one of the authors of the Peter-Weyl theorem. This theorem appears in a paper (Die Vollständigkeit der primitiven Darstellungen einer geschlossenen ...
4
votes
0answers
134 views
What happened to the undergrad students who attended the Feynman Lecture Series in 1961-63?
Note: This question was originally asked here, but I was wondering if I could get further clarification as this has truly intrigued me.
In the academic years of 1962-2 and 1962-3, Richard Feynman ...
8
votes
7answers
321 views
Women in mathematics
I'd like to read something about the history of women in mathematics. I'd love to have reading suggestions of books in English or Italian, of 3 kinds:
1) History of math books, academic style;
2) ...
3
votes
0answers
180 views
Identification of scientists in de Gennes book
Petit Point: A Candid Portrait on the Aberrations of Science is a charming book written by the French physicist Pierre-Gilles de Gennes containing short essays on some of the prominent scientists that ...
17
votes
2answers
3k views
What was the relationship between Einstein and Minkowski?
I read many Einstein's Biographies, but Minkowski was never mentioned, though his discovery of the union of space and time created the basis for GR.
Minkowski was Einstein's teacher of mathematics ...
4
votes
0answers
100 views
Did Paul Dirac believe in multiple universes?
Prominent physicist Paul Dirac proposed a hypothesis that said that constants and laws of physics would evolve with time into different constants and laws of nature.
This hypothesis was used by ...
6
votes
1answer
173 views
What was the “libration of Pallas” that Gauss studied, when Pallas is not a moon of Jupiter?
This question is a request for general explanation of an astronomical phenomenon known as "Pallas libration", and isn't much about the details of Gauss's mathematical model of this libration. As is ...
0
votes
2answers
167 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 ...
1
vote
0answers
98 views
Two questions about Gauss's contributions to capillarity and the calculus of variations
In the last page of the abstract of Gauss's paper on capillarity "Principia generalia theoriae figurae fluidorum in statu aequilibrii" (1829), the author (who is he?) mentions (Gauss's werke, volume V,...
2
votes
0answers
77 views
Textbooks used by Oliver Heaviside
Oliver Heaviside achieved a very high level in mathematics and physics by self-study, starting from a modest school-level math, and working alone in his room, without a tutor. Is it known what ...
4
votes
0answers
114 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. ...
2
votes
3answers
425 views
Who all scientists made a mark in the world despite their disabilities?
Stephen Hawking is a famous scientist who despite being disabled made a big contribution to the scientific world. I want to know other such scientists who have a big influence on us.
0
votes
0answers
87 views
Looking for a specific story about young Stephen Hawking
There was a specific account of Stephen Hawking by one of his contemporaries in which Hawking was in his late undergrad or early postgrad.
As I remember, there was a small class of physics students (...
2
votes
3answers
226 views
Great scientists with chaotic private lives
In the arena of art, it is not uncommon to find great writers, composers or painters who suffer from chaotic personal lives (e.g., lifelong alcoholism, addiction to prostitutes, stormy marriages and ...
3
votes
0answers
78 views
Several questions about Gauss's contributions to observational astronomy
I just want to check if anyone has additional information about a private astronomical research begun by Gauss in 1819, which dealt with the "movements of the solar system" in the galaxy (motion of ...
0
votes
0answers
43 views
Did Ludwig Boltzmann ever go to Copenhagen or any other part of Denmark?
Did Ludwig Boltzmann ever go to Copenhagen or any other part of Denmark?
I also read that he was appointed "Honorary Doctor" by the university of Oslo. Does this mean that he went to Norway?
https://...
4
votes
1answer
76 views
Was Lord Kelvin at any point a proponent of vitalism?
Vitalism is the notion now discredited as pseudoscientific that there is some fundamental cleavage between living and non-living matter.
This blog post contains some quotes that suggest Lord Kelvin ...
-1
votes
1answer
45 views
Ctesibius discovery of compressed air
I want to know where has he placed the tube and how he adjust the height ?
Please refer the link below marked in violet http://lnr.li/m19fP
Please explain using simple diagram for better ...
-1
votes
1answer
108 views
Discovery of Suction pump
As I know that before Galileo,all the scientists believe that vacuum cannot exists. But how suction pump(which itself remove air)was discovered before Galileo. What was the steps involved in it to ...
1
vote
1answer
94 views
Did John von Neumann ever go to any Nordic Country? Did Eugene Paul Wigner ever go to any other Nordic Country apart from Sweden?
I'm researching about the presence of important scientists in Nordic Countries (Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland).
I was hoping that someone could help me since I've not been able to find ...
-3
votes
1answer
40 views
Torricellis invention of barometer
Why has he used denser liquid that is mercury? Why didn't he thought of using lighter liquids than water?Please refer the link in the toricellis work in physics marked in violet
http://lnr.li/mttgq
1
vote
0answers
64 views
Galileo discovery of vacuum
I want to know how he thought that when his siphon could not raise water more than 10m it may be because of vacuum?
Please refer the link below https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Gasparo_Berti
-5
votes
1answer
92 views
History behind the word pressure
I want to know who had used the word pressure for the first time and what was the reason for him to use the word pressure.
As I searched on google but it is only showing about barometer discovery
2
votes
1answer
71 views
How did Francis Hauksbee know that mercury would glow in his electrostatic generator?
I read that he made a modified version of Otto von Guericke's electrostatic generator but I want to know how he came to know that mercury can glow light in his generator at that time?
0
votes
0answers
58 views
Water conductivity discovery
I read how Benjamin Franklin does the kite experiment in rain but keeping himself and the bottom end dry.I want to know how he know that water can conduct electricity.Please refer the link below and ...
0
votes
1answer
55 views
Kite experiment
In Benjamin Franklin's kite given in the link below http://www.benjamin-franklin-history.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Franklins-kite.jpg
I want to know how electric charge pass through strings as ...
-1
votes
2answers
126 views
Electric spark discovery
I am searching it on Google but I am not finding,who had discovered static electric spark for the first time,that later Benjamin Franklin proved that this spark(already discovered spark) is same as ...
-2
votes
2answers
113 views
Charles du fay experiment
How he get to know which one is positive and which one is negative as stated by him that there are two types of fluid?
Also tell how he thought of two fluids?
1
vote
1answer
74 views
Robert Boyle discovery of electricity
I was searching for all the names who discovered electricity. As I was seeing the names, the first name came of William Gilbert and I searched how had he discovered I got to know. Then the second ...
2
votes
0answers
87 views
Were notable physicists great at math or computing? [closed]
Were famous or popular physicists like Galileo, Newton, Einstein, Feynman predominantly mathematicians or scientists (computing, experimenting, engineering, etc.)?
I am curious if people like the ...
7
votes
3answers
650 views
Who are the top mathematicians who were ignored due to their unconventional approach?
A perfect example would be Srinivasa Ramanujan.
It is known that the conventional community throughout history have been close-minded towards great men of science and mathematics (e.g., Galileo).
...
4
votes
1answer
91 views
Meaning of a cryptic sentence by Gauss on “the mobility of figures in the hyperbolic plane”
G. Waldo Dunnington writes in pages 189-190 of his biography of Gauss:
Among the axioms of geometry which do not depend on the parallel postulate are those which secure the free mobility of a ...
7
votes
1answer
218 views
Did Cambridge change their BSc policy for Ramanujan?
I found this quote at Quora:
In March 1916 Ramanujan graduated from Cambridge with a Bachelor of Science by Research (This degree was later renamed as Ph.D. from 1920) for his work on Highly ...
9
votes
1answer
543 views
Is the anecdote about Niels Bohr keeping a horseshoe on his door true?
I recently came to know of an anecdote about Niels Bohr that the philosopher Slavoj Zizek claims to have read in a biography of Bohr. He doesn't specify the author or the biography.
The anecdote ...
3
votes
1answer
357 views
Who associated the sharp, principal, diffuse, fundamental spectral terms with electron's momentum?
It is well documented that the notation for the electronic configuration (s,p,d,f) of atoms as used today originates from the words sharp, principal, diffuse, fundamental from alkali metal spectra (...
3
votes
2answers
99 views
Biographical informations on Igor Ado
Ado's Theorem is a very reelvant result in Lie theory (every finite-dimensional Lie algebra is isomorphic to a matrix Lie algebra).
I've been, however, unable to find anything more than very basics ...
1
vote
1answer
127 views
Explanation of Gauss's late fragments dealing with “the conformal image of the ellipse”
My question refers to some not very well known fragments of Gauss that treat the problem of finding a conformal mapping (angle-preserving mapping) in the complex plane from the interior of the ellipse ...
2
votes
1answer
200 views
Meaning of passages by Gauss on the “convergence of expansions (in infinite series) of the (elliptical) equation of the center”?
Yesterday I took my time to look again into Schlesinger's essay on Gauss's contributions to analysis, and I found something new I didn't know about (so it caught my eye) in the last subsection of the ...
5
votes
2answers
454 views
Has anything survived of the work of alleged science journalist and medical doctor 'Adolph Klein', allegedly born 1829 in Merseburg?
The Jewish Encyclopedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Encyclopedia) contains a sizeable entry on one 'Adolph Klein', allegedly born on 1829-05-29 in ther German city of Halle (Saale).
...
0
votes
0answers
79 views
Is there any historical mention of Richard Feynman being aware of multiverse theories of cosmology?
The reason I ask is because he talks about the fine structure constant in one of his undergraduate lectures.
The reference to its mystery is analogous to all the special constants of nature such as ...
2
votes
0answers
115 views
Several questions about Gauss's mathematical conception of braids
I'm trying to figure out several things about Gauss's thoughts concerning a certain four-strand braid. The reference my questions are based on is mainly Moritz Epple's excellent article "orbits of ...
3
votes
1answer
168 views
Is there anything written by Newton's roommate Wilkins about him?
I've read that John Wilkins was Newton's room-mate and they lived together for 20 years. Is there anything about Newton written by Wilkins?
By the way, there is nothing easily found on google.
3
votes
0answers
70 views
A portrait of Bombelli
Is there any known portrait of Rafael Bombelli? I don't think so, but if you visit his MacTutor biography, you will see there this picture:
It is clear to me that this cannot possibly be a picture of ...
