Questions tagged [biographical-details]
For questions about the details of a particular scientist's life.
224
questions
3
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85 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
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0answers
94 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
134 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
93 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
72 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
66 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
417 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.
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84 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
213 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
73 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
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0answers
41 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
67 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
44 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
103 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
87 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
36 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
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0answers
62 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
-4
votes
1answer
88 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
52 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
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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
93 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 ...
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votes
2answers
88 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
71 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
86 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 ...
5
votes
3answers
394 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.(eg. Galileo)
...
4
votes
1answer
89 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
196 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
367 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
236 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 (...
4
votes
2answers
95 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
111 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
187 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 ...
6
votes
2answers
452 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
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0answers
61 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
110 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
127 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
67 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 ...
4
votes
0answers
154 views
How old might Emmy Noether be in this picture?
I have not found bibliographic data to show what age Noether was in this picture:
And I cannot estimate well either by her clothes or her face.
Can anyone here help me?
In the past I have known ...
4
votes
2answers
160 views
What mathematical techniques Gauss used in order to tessellate the unit disk?
This question is a continuation of my previously posted question: Was Gauss aware of the non-euclidean implications of his work on moduler forms?, and is based on the information given in John ...
1
vote
1answer
115 views
What is the modern interpretation of Gauss's “Summatorische Function”?
In Buhler's biography of Gauss (Gauss: A Biographical Study), at the chapter on modular forms and hypergeometric series, he mentions a function that Gauss called "Summatorische Function", which he ...
5
votes
2answers
368 views
What are the modern connections of the Pentagramma Mirificum studied by Gauss?
In the last years, i read a lot about a mathematical object that was discovered by John Napier in 1620 and explored much more deeply by Gauss, who called this "Pentagramma Mirificum" (latin for "the ...
3
votes
1answer
335 views
Gauss's anticipation of quaternions and their relation to congruences
Recently i read the article "Hamilton, Rodrigues, Gauss, Quaternions and Rotations: A Historical Reassessment", which can be found freely on the internet. This article is by far the most comprehensive ...
4
votes
2answers
268 views
Question about Gauss's contributions to the theory of electric circuits
This question is a continuation of my previously-posted question: Several questions about Gauss's contributions to electromagnetism. I wrote it after user vonbrand asked me to split my original ...
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0answers
83 views
Query 31 in Newton's opticks and the second law of thermodynamics
Query 31 in Newton's opticks contains the following words: "But by reason of the Tenacity of Fluids, and Attrition of their Parts, and the Weakness of Elasticity in Solids, Motion is much more apt to ...
4
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1answer
202 views
Do these trigonometric identities belong to Antonio Cagnoli?
I'm new to this stack community, please bear with me as I try to explain my question properly. Recently I came across with these trigonometric identities (where $ \omega + \phi + \psi = 180^\circ $):
...
3
votes
1answer
267 views
Several questions about Gauss's contributions to electromagnetism
First of all, i appologize if i'm asking too many questions about Gauss (and some will also say "not very interesting questions"); i know i might appear ridiculus - but i really think it's an ...
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267 views
Is Gauss's electrodynamics law for inertial motion correct at all?
My question refers to a fragment on electrodynamics written by Gauss at around 1835. In this short note (see Gauss's Werke, volume V, p. 616-617) Gauss wrote down a fundamental equation which ...
