Questions tagged [social-context]
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Did any mathematicians of the time (the 17th Century) try out an intermediary between Bernoulli's and Nieuwentijdt’s infinitesimals?
In §4 of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on continuity and infinitesimals, the author (John L. Bell) mentions that:
... Johann Bernoulli (1667–1748) [in a] letter of his to Leibniz ...
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What is the "legendary Chicago machine" Rosenfeld refers to in his 1963 paper *On quantization of fields*?
There's a famous paper by L. Rosenfeld (On quantization of fields. Nuclear Physics 40, 353–356 (1963). doi:10.1016/0029-5582(63)90279-7) in which he criticizes the theoretical arguments leading to the ...
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"Political Events" in the Preface to the Second Edition of Spivak's Comprehensive Introduction Volume 2
In the Preface to the second edition to Spivak's A Comprehensive Introduction to Differential Geometry, Vol. 2, on p.vii says:
The material in this Volume covers about what I would have completed in ...
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Literary Movements in Math Writing
I am wondering if there is some analog for literary movements in writing (e.g., romanticism/post-modernism) for mathematics or the sciences as a whole. I would think there would be similarly large ...
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Historical example of research papers being misinterpreted due to poor wording and creating controversy?
Is there any example of major controversy in the scientific community caused due to poor wording and/or misinterpretation of words?
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Luis Miramontes helped enable the sexual revolution. Why isn’t he better known? [closed]
Why, then, did Miramontes remain an obscure figure? He was a student at a time when science was especially hierarchical. And the fact that Searle beat Syntex to market cut Mexico — and Miramontes — ...
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Did Bacon analogize planets to holes in the head to explain why their number was (believed to be) seven?
I'm looking for a source (of which I've only ever read a quote) discussing the then seven known planets. In particular, I'm looking for the part where the author explains why that number seven makes ...
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To what extent was astronomical knowledge in ancient Greece common knowledge?
I have a question about ancient Greek astronomy. We know certainly that the likes of Pythagoras, Aristotle, Anaximander, et al had much to say about the motions of the stars, planets, comets, etc, ...
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Did Galileo Galilei believe in astrology?
The Wikipedia page on Gallileo Galilei mentions, among other things:
His multiple interests included the study of astrology, which at the time was a discipline tied to the studies of mathematics and ...
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Are there any extant letters backing up the famous anecdote about Edmund Landau and Fermat's Last Theorem?
I recall reading in several sources the story about the letter "template" with which Edmund Landau used to answer individuals that sent him their "proofs" of Fermat's Last Theorem.....
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Why was the Vietnam Day Committee, begun by Stephen Smale and Jerry Rubin, named as it was?
Stephen Smale, an American mathematician and Jerry Rubin, who was at Berkeley before dropping out to organise around left wing causes, set up the Vietnam Day Committee in 1965 during a 35 hour anti-...
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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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What prompted Bose's move to Dhaka University in 1921?
Satyendra Nath Bose who discovered boson statistics and is credited by Einstein for also discovering the Bose-Einstein condensate was born in Calcutta, was educated there at Presidency College and ...
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How did the Vietnamese manage set up the Vietnamese Mathematical Society during the Vietnam War?
The Vietnamese Mathematical Society was set up in 1965 by Le Van Thiem and Hoang Tuy. Both had studied in Europe, the former in Paris and Germany and the latter in Moscow. By 1965, the Vietnam War, ...
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Are there any important scientific discoveries, or inventions, that could have been made much earlier in history? [closed]
I can imagine that some discoveries are not made for a long time despite availability of all the information and tools that one would in principle need.
Are there clear examples of that?
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Did Renaissance mathematicians once consider themselves inferior to the great ancient mathematicians?
In the book What do you care what other people think?, Feynman talks about how in the 16th century Niccolo Tartaglia discovered a solution to cubic equations. He says while this was not a major ...
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Why are revolutions per minute (RPM) still used instead of hertz (Hz)?
When did people start using Revolutions per Minute (RPM) to measure motors, engines, other devices and where did the term originate? Why do we continue to use it instead of an SI unit like Hz?
From ...
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Where did the term "set-builder notation" come from?
In math stack exchange I often see notations like $\{x\in\mathbb Q:x^2<2\}$ being called instances of set builder notation. When I went to school we (that is, I, my fellow students, my teachers, ...
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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. ...
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What were the typical ways students were taught the elements when it remained the prime textbook of mathematics?
In modern textbooks, students are greeted with plenty of exercises. Usually they are also organized in such a way that you have examples and pointers to what concepts are most important. The elements ...
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Has a stereotypical "mad scientist" ever made a significant discovery?
Most people are familiar with the famous "mad scientist" trope from science fiction - the scientist who is typically a loner, often self-funded from family wealth, frequently mentally ill, engaged in ...
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Examples of papers co-authored by parent/child, or siblings
I hope this question is not inappropriate for this site; I found hsm.stackexchange better suited for it than MathOverflow or math.stackexchange. The motivation for it is just curiosity.
Question: ...
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What are some of the earliest mentions of scientific "cranks"?
Often professors in math and physics academia have inboxes full of people claiming to have solved deep problems such as dark matter, black holes, prime number conjectures and claim that many big names ...
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Indiana Pi Bill: Other attempts to establish mathematical truth by legislative fiat?
Wiki:
The Indiana Pi Bill is the popular name for bill #246 of the 1897 sitting of the Indiana General Assembly, one of the most notorious attempts to establish mathematical truth by legislative ...
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What is the international standing of Italian mathematics?
Being Italian, I have a biased view on my homeland's mathematical impact in the world, so I would like to get some impartial opinion on the topic.
I would measure the mathematical relevance in terms, ...
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Nature of Fermat's friend Lalouvère's activities as censor?
Fermat had a friend at Toulouse named Lalouvère. Lalouvère was censor, jesuit, and mathematician (in alphabetical order).
Antonella Romano writes on page 512 of her book La Contre-Réforme ...
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How come so many laws were not discovered by people they are named after?
Background
Stigler's Law of Eponymy states that:
Mathematical and Scientific laws/discoveries/inventions/&c. are simply not named after their original discoverer.
Stigler's "Law" is a perfect ...
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Was it a major cultural event when Van Leeuwenhoek discovered unseen animals under the microscope?
In the 17e century van Leeuwenhoek discovered with his microscope new kind of animals and cells. How was this discovery of van Leeuwenhoek received by the ordinary people when there seemed to be more ...
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Instances of suppression of scientific ideas
I have started to compile a list of instances of suppression of scientific ideas in history. Up to now I have collected the following points:
According to Dioganes Laertius Anaxagoras was imprisoned ...
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When did British science take off?
The first few big scientists like Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, Galileo were not British. Then came Newton. And, since then, it seems that the British started dominating science.
What was the ...
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Is scientific consensus ever significantly wrong?
In debates with climate change deniers and creationists, it is often claimed that consensus of scientists is not enough to establish a position beyond dispute. Examples of the problem with consensus ...
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Harm of nature vs nurture debate?
I'm taking a class in language acquisition called "Nature vs Nurture". I'm not particularly fond of that framing, because the divide seems overly dichotomous. In addition, the N-vs-N debate has been ...
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What were Hilbert's weekly 1933 lectures on "matters of general intellectual interest" about?
Saunders Mac Lane says he attended Hilbert's weekly lectures on "matters of general intellectual interest" around 1931 or 1933 (Saunders Mac Lane: A Mathematical Autobiography p. 44). I believe these ...
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Did Grothendieck really say that he felt "clumsy, even oafish, wandering painfully up an arduous track"?
Here I found the following quote, attributed to the great Grothendieck:
Since then I’ve had the chance in the world of mathematics that bid me welcome, to meet quite a number of people, both among my ...
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What major areas of mathematics have been abandoned?
It seems that the focus of mathematical research moves on every so often, and some areas are not proven wrong, but have just become uninteresting in the current mathematical culture. I was under the ...
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In the scholastic challenges of renaissance Italy, what restrictions were considered appropriate regarding the incumbent's choice of subject?
EDIT
Following Mauro's comment, I have altered my question to ask only about any restrictions that may have been considered concerning the suitability of the incumbent's choice of questions for the ...
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Was the Principia ever used as a textbook of physics for the people wanting to learn?
For example in the early days, when it was the only way to learn Newtonian mechanics? Was it good as a textbook?
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Who convinced Churchill to fund Needham's trip to China in 1942?
In 1942 the famous British biochemist Joseph Needham was sent to China to help their scientists because the Japanese had been targetting Chinese universities, academies and technical institutions ...
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Attitude towards mathematics throughout History
I am curious about how the majority of non-mathematicians felt about mathematics throughout history. When did the general opinion on math start to become what it is today--namely, that math is boring ...
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Who popularized the question "why is the sky blue?"
"Why is the sky blue" is a question that everybody seems to know, and in modern times is associated with children's innate curiosity. If I casually flip through a few of the children's science books I ...
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Historical examples of non-scientists who thought scientifically
I am working on a project in which I want to show how the thoughts of some non-scientists, poets and artists in particular, matched with science. To instill interest in science among my peers I want ...
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Conflict between physics and philosophy
In the old days. stars of physicists like Einstein$^{[1]}$, Poincare, Heisenberg, Pauli, $^{[2]}$ Bohr and so on are quite philosophical mind, and like philosophy. $^{[3]}$
But now, it seems to me a ...
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How did the loss of Einstein's first child affect his work?
In Einstein's biography written by Walter Isaacson, by the way wonderful book that I recommend to everyone, there are few pages referring vaguely to his first child with Mileva Marić, a daughter named ...
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Was Galileo a plagiarizer?
Was Galileo a plagiarizer?
If we where to apply to the works of Galileo the general standards of plagiarism that we conform to today at our local institutions, would he be considered a plagiarizer?
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What films and fiction give realistic historical portrayal of science and scientists?
I am looking not for documentaries or biographies, those are easier to find, but for well written fictionalized but realistic portrayals of scientists and their work. These are hard to search for ...
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Did the Soviet Union emphasize nuclear physics over biology?
Some friend from Georgia told me that in every village of the Soviet Union there was an expert in nuclear physics.
By contrast, the Soviet Union did not invest into biology at all. As a consequence, ...
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How did "royal we" become a standard of scientific writing?
Single authors referring to themselves as "we" is still commonplace today, and already Newton was we-ing in Principia. There is even a Latin term for we-ing, nosism, from "nos", which is Latin for "we"...
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How did "publish or perish" become the scientific priority rule?
The modern standard is that "between two or more independent discoverers, the first to make formal publication is the legitimate winner", colorfully described as publish or perish. This was ...
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When and why were mathematics and magic considered synonymous in England
In 1555, John Dee was arrested for "calculating". According to his MacTutor biography:
At this time mathematics in England was considered to be equivalent to the possession of magical powers and ...
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