Questions tagged [biographical-details]
For questions about the details of a particular scientist's life.
329
questions
3
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1answer
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Who was E. Busche?
Donald E. Knuth reports in his: TAOCP: Volume 1: Fundamental Algorithms (3rd ed.) in $\S1.2.4$: Integer Functions and Elementary Number Theory: Exercise 38 that this result:
$$\sum_{0 \mathop \le k \...
3
votes
1answer
100 views
Who was Paul Gerwien?
The famed Wallace–Bolyai–Gerwien theorem has got its name from three mathematicians who proved it independently. More precisely speaking
Farkas Bolyai first formulated the question. Gerwien proved ...
4
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1answer
73 views
Did Einstein know about Laplace's query into whether gravity is instantaneous?
Here it states,
In 1776, Laplace published a memoir in which he first explored the possible influences of a purported luminiferous ether or of a law of gravitation that did not act instantaneously. ...
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52 views
Newton's Christian beliefs and alchemy
I was thinking in the rise of the so called "scientific revolution" (I know this is a broad period of history and science actually developed gradually, but you get the idea) and the ...
2
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0answers
48 views
Kurt Gödel: a biography
I'm looking for a well-written biographical book about Kurt Gödel. Any titles you'd recommend?
10
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2answers
261 views
Who predicted the existence of the muon neutrino?
The Wikipedia article on the muon neutrino says:
The muon neutrino is a lepton, an elementary subatomic particle which has the symbol $\nu_\mu$ and no net electric charge. Together with the muon it ...
2
votes
1answer
59 views
Heyting and Lugano
I read in Wikipedia that Arend Heyting, logician, died in Lugano while all the biographies focus on his career in Amsterdam and nearby.
Do we know if he lived in Lugano or not, and why died there?
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2answers
168 views
Who were the mathematicians who hated teaching in class or disliked teaching?
Who were the mathematicians who hated teaching in class or disliked teaching?
From this Article:
Gauss hated teaching, and believed some students robbed him of his time.
From this Article:
Perelman ...
0
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0answers
78 views
How well did Cardano understand elementary probabilities, as shown from his writings?
I was recently reading a paper on the historical development of probability theory where Cardano is presented as having discovered some elementary laws of probability in the 1550s. But he is described ...
1
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0answers
63 views
What were the likely lives of the highly creative or intellectually gifted people in declining or primitive civilizations?
People living in certain regions throughout history produced little to none recorded intellectual achievements.
Assuming that highly creative individuals existed in these regions, are there any ...
3
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0answers
62 views
Did Ibn al-Haytham write anything about his experiments that is general enough to be seen as prefiguring the scientific method?
Ibn al-Haytham is considered one of the first experimenters. Since he was also a kind of philosopher did he write anything close in meaning and generality to the scientific method?
4
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1answer
104 views
Who was Fleury? And what was his first name?
One of the algorithms for finding Eulerian paths and circuits in graphs that have them is due to Fleury. Lucas mentioned this in his 1892 recreational mathematics collection, referring to "M. ...
0
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0answers
28 views
What were C.S Peirce's contributions to theory of relations?
In my study of Peirce I came across a number statements that he extended De Morgan's relation algebra.
What exactly are his contributions to relation algebra?
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1answer
105 views
Why theology plays a great role in becoming great mathematicians? [closed]
Why theology play a great role in becoming great mathematicians?
I have some confusion about theology with mathematics.
I read the biography of Euler and Bernhard Riemann.
Both were studying ...
0
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0answers
51 views
Did Leibniz ever express any opinion about Aristotle, Plato or Archimedes?
Since Leibniz is known to have expressed opinions about Descartes' and Newton's abilities maybe he did the same for the prominent thinkers of antiquity.
Did Leibniz ever express any opinion about ...
1
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0answers
45 views
What was the first randomized experiment that was ever conducted?
C.S Peirce is credited by wikipedia with the invention of randomized experiments.
What was C.S Peirce's contribution to randomized experiments exactly if there were such experiments before Peirce?
How ...
0
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0answers
54 views
What was the reason for Grothendiecks 'fast every Monday' in Vietnam?
According to MacTutor article on mathematics in Vietnam
... He visited in November 1967. The first few days we organised his lectures in Hanoi. But one day a missile exploded 100-200m from the ...
1
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1answer
58 views
Is there any book or site where John Von Neumann's collected philosophical writings are presented?
I was wondering if Von Neuman has any philosophical writings beside his writings on the relation of computers to the human mind and vice versa.
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65 views
Do we know how Feynmans religious views changed throughout his life?
According to Feynman, there was a quota for Jews at American Universities and when he was accepted on a graduate programme - I think at Princeton - they were told "he's Jewish but he doesn't act ...
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48 views
Did the brain anatomists and psychophysicists of the early to mid 1800s make any philosophical speculations on the nature of emotions and cognition?
I was wondering if the psychophysicists and brain anatomists from 1800 up until 1860s made any novel, noteworthy philosophical speculations about the emotions and cognition.If they did is there any ...
2
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1answer
69 views
Is there any book or site where Gauss' collected philosophical writings are presented?
From the questions on some of Gauss' philosophical ideas here at HSM stackexchange it's clear that Gauss had some major philosophical ideas that despite their profundity don't seem to have had much ...
1
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1answer
100 views
How did Peirce react to his stigmatization from the academia?
Do we have any evidence on how Peirce reacted to his stigmatization by various academics(e.g by having denied him of tenure at John Hopkins, leaving from the house when they learned that he was ...
3
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1answer
63 views
Was there a continuation to the Seven Bridges of Königsberg problem between Euler and Hamilton?
Since Euler's result on the Seven Bridges of Königsberg problem appears to be the first known graph theoretical result I was wondering if any mathematicians after Euler and before Hamilton commented ...
1
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1answer
48 views
Was C.S Peirce the first philosopher to posit that value belief serves as some sort of guide for scientific belief?
I remember reading something to the effect that the moral and aesthetic preferences influence scientific belief in his collected works.
Was C.S Peirce the first philosopher to posit that value belief ...
2
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1answer
82 views
Was C.S Peirce in his abductive reasoning influenced by the generalization from special cases that is used by mathematicians?
I am reading some random bits from Peirce's collected works and they give me the impression that Peirce tried to integrate every(or nearly every) major scientific and mathematical concept which he was ...
0
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48 views
Were these ideas well known during the 1850s in the US?
I was looking at a biography of C.S Peirce where it is shown the following parts of one of his essays which he wrote when he was 15 years old and are presented as evidence of his youthful genius:
...
0
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1answer
41 views
What are some facts about Peirce's early precocity?
In some of his online biographies Peirce is described as having showed early signs of precocity.
Can someone describe some of these signs of precocity?
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79 views
Is there any indication of what mathematics Trotsky studied?
In Isaac Deutscher's, The Prophet Armed: Trotsky 1879-1921, he writes of the youthful Trotsky:
His stay in Odessa ended in 1896. A realschule normally had seven forms but St. Paul's had only six so ...
3
votes
3answers
400 views
Did C.S Peirce make any noteworthy contributions to physics or chemistry?
According to this article
Peirce was the first to experimentally tie a unit, the meter, to an
absolute standard, the wavelength of a spectral line
Did C.S Peirce make any other noteworthy ...
6
votes
1answer
258 views
Who is the Göbel who is the eponym of Göbel's Sequence?
Richard K. Guy refers to him as "F. Göbel" in his Unsolved Problems of Number Theory but that's as close as I can get.
For reference:
https://mathworld.wolfram.com/GoebelsSequence.html
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69 views
Are there any accounts of Charles Peirce's character,cognition and physical appearance?
I am interested in any historical account of the following attributes of Peirce:character,cognition and appearance.
0
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0answers
32 views
What's the history of the heuristics on doing science efficiently and effectively?
I recently read a paper by Taleb about doing science efficiently and effectively and I was wondering if there other predecessors to his work which more or less express the same things(since Taleb ...
5
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1answer
82 views
Was Charles Sanders Peirce aware of Charles Babbage's difference engine?
Is there any indication that Charles Peirce was aware of Babbage and his work on mechanical computing?
15
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1answer
3k views
Which mathematician traveled to and moved in with each collaborator?
I remember a video, perhaps a Numberphile episode where a mathematician was described who would simply move in to the home of a collaborator with which they were engaged to so that they could work ...
0
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1answer
88 views
Who was the 17th century mathematician “André Jumeau, Prior of Sainte-Croix”?
I'm reading Dickson's History on the Theory of Numbers, and find this on page 34:
"The third $P_3$ [that is, triperfect number], discovered by André Jumeau, Prior of Sainte-Croix", is ${P_3}^...
2
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1answer
86 views
Complete list of publications of Rebecca Barlow
Rebecca Barlow is the discoverer of an interesting surface in algebraic geometry. Is anybody aware of a full list of her contributions? Has she continued working in mathematics in the 21st century?
7
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1answer
262 views
Does Blum's speedup theorem have any conceptual predecessors?
Blum's speedup theorem seems to me that bears at least some superficial resemblance to Godels research on the length of proofs under certain axiomatic systems.
Does Blum's speedup theorem has any ...
4
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0answers
136 views
How did Peano come up with his space filling curve?
Wikipedia cites an earlier result of Cantor as an inspiration but I wonder if there are any previous results of some kind of recursive curve constructions that may have also "inspired" him ...
2
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1answer
173 views
Are there any mathematicians who expressed non-obvious sets of rules on how to do research?
I recently saw a paper where there are presented some rules on how to learn mathematics (and do research) which were firstly articulated by Lagrange.
Are there any similar rules that were expressed ...
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57 views
Was Paul Nemenyi related to John Von Neumann? [closed]
I was looking at an article about the probable father of the former world chess champion Bob Fischer whose family's name was originally Neumann and I was wondering if he had a common ancestor with ...
1
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2answers
98 views
Was Giuseppe Peano one of the greatest mathematicians of his era? [closed]
Besides the Peano axioms which perhaps brought him fame but which are considered a refinement of similar previous axioms Peano seems to have done relatively little original work.
Does the rest of his ...
3
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1answer
336 views
Why does Riazuddin not have a last name?
Riazuddin was a Pakistani theoretical physicist, his name looks a little bit different to me from others because he doesn't have a last name. There are some others Pakistani theoretical physicists ...
0
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0answers
71 views
Who was the first to state that scientific theories could be used to make predictions?
It seems to me that very few if any scientists/philosophers stated that science could be used for predictions before the early 1900s. In the scientific context I have only encountered the use of the ...
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44 views
It was Edouard Lucas who is the eponym of Lucas Sequence, and not Henry Lucas, yes?
Just making sure of this.
I've just found this statement in the Collins Dictionary of Mathematics (E.J. Borowski and J.M. Borwein, 1989) in the entry for "Lucas Numbers".
"(Named after ...
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0answers
44 views
When did Kolmogorov complexity begin being applied to real world objects and ideas?
I was looking at this paper about "Low complexity art" which involves kolmogorov complexity and I was wondering of when did that complexity theory began being applied to other things that ...
0
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1answer
41 views
Who is the “M.J.M. Hill” as mentioned in the historical introduction to Piaggio's “Differential Equations”?
I am reading H.T.H. Piaggio's "An Elementary Treatise on Differential Equations and their Applications", published 1920 originally; I have the 1952 edition.
The first chapter "...
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1answer
65 views
What did the italian Nobel laureate Riccardo Giacconi think about the Multiverse hypothesis?
Riccardo Giacconi (1931-2018) was an italian astrophysicist who was awarded with the Nobel prize in physics back in 2002 for his important contributions to astrophysics.
Since he was an astrophysicist ...
16
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1answer
4k views
Was Kolmogorov enraged after learning about the Karatsuba multiplication algorithm?
Some years ago, I read that Kolmogorov was so enraged that Karatsuba disproved one of his conjectures that he terminated his seminar shortly thereafter.
This Wikipedia page claims that Kolmogorov was ...
2
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2answers
144 views
Was Fred Hoyle’s career due, in part, to the popularity of the static universe in 1950s?
Watching the video So much universe, so little time, I was surprised to hear Fred Hoyle talked about in glowing terms.
According to the narrator, by the late 1950’s the big bang model was losing ...
3
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0answers
95 views
How did Ruffini manage to extend the methods of Lagrange in order to “prove” the insolvability of the general quintic equation?
Since Lagrange published his Reflections papers during the early 1770s — around 30 years before Ruffini took up and extended the subject — I was wondering if there were any results that were ...
