All Questions
4,592
questions
3
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0
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250
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Writing functions on the right
In group theory, writing functions on the right is a common, though not universal practice.
Thus, given mappings $f$, $g$ and group element $\alpha$, one might write $\alpha f$ and $\alpha (f \circ ...
- 6,859
4
votes
2
answers
915
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What were the applications of conic sections before Kepler?
When recently asked for a practical application of parabolas, I responded by talking about objects in free-fall. Afterwards as I was re-thinking this conversation it occurred to me that an object in ...
- 309
4
votes
2
answers
549
views
When did it become a mainstream stereotype that physicists hate philosophy?
Question
I'm searching for the origin of the stereotype (regardless of validity) that physicists hate philosophy? This opinion seems to be more mainstream in the public domain. I do concede they are ...
- 183
1
vote
0
answers
118
views
Did Romans know formulae?
I read a previous question on Roman engineers and I was surprized that nobody referred to the Pantheon: its dome is an unrivalled wonder of architecture. Roads and aqueducts can be built without ...
- 703
4
votes
1
answer
263
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. ...
- 305
5
votes
1
answer
106
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Spirals as calendrical representations
A recent work proposed that the double spiral motif found at Newgrange (ca. 3200 BC) is a calendrical representation. Looking south the northern peoples observed that the arc traced by the sun widens ...
- 2,387
0
votes
0
answers
101
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How did Gauss and Lagrange derive Gauss law of Electrostatics
On Wikipedia, these two pages are mentioned :Lagrange and Gauss
however I am an English speaker and can not comprehend any of the one, can someone provide the translated pages or shortly their line of ...
- 163
4
votes
0
answers
66
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How did the terms stress and strain come to describe two different things?
In physics, stress essentially captures forces in a body, where as strain captures displacements. Two dimensionally very different concepts. If you look it up in a thesaurus, stress and strain are ...
- 189
3
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0
answers
150
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Before differential calculus was discovered, why were mathematicians interested in tangents?
I think it is often said that one great motivation for the invention of calculus was to have a tool allowing to calculate the slope of a tangent to a curve $C$ at a given point $P$, and even, to find ...
user9853
1
vote
0
answers
103
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Italian Mathematics
After reading this question, I remembered seeing on our department webpage somewhere that for PhD studies one must show a competency in either German, French, or Russian, but Italian was acceptable ...
user10738
5
votes
2
answers
368
views
Substantiating claimed Fourier quote about “an arbitrarily capricious graph”
The following quote (in English) is fairly widely attributed to Fourier, but I can't substantiate it.
An arbitrary function, continuous or with discontinuities, defined in a finite interval by an ...
2
votes
1
answer
162
views
Where does $M$ for expected value in Russian papers come from?
In modern papers in statistics, it is common to use the symbol $E[X]$ to refer to the expectation of a random variable $X$.
While reading (a translated version of) "Convergence Rate of Nonparametric ...
- 123
6
votes
1
answer
593
views
What was the motive for inventing Gröbner bases?
How did professor Buchberger discover Gröbner (Groebner) bases for polynomial ideals? What was the problem(s) that lead to such a discovery?
- 203
4
votes
0
answers
1k
views
Was Richard Feynman really awarded a patent for a nuclear Airplane and Rocket?
I've been re-reading "Surely you're Joking Mr. Feynman", and at one point he talks about how at Los Alamos they were asked to write down any idea, no matter how obvious involving nuclear technology, ...
- 211
1
vote
2
answers
454
views
Who discovered or predicted an electron g factor of circa 2?
I'm writing a physics article with significant historical content, and I'm struggling to find something. Forgetting about the anomalous magnetic dipole moment for a minute, the electron's g factor is ...
- 210
3
votes
1
answer
1k
views
What is the origin of the concept of reduced mass?
I am looking for the origin of the concept of reduced mass as used in vibrational spectroscopy e.g. vibration of a diatomic molecule. Most of the texts simply define reduced mass as the sum of the ...
- 4,034
0
votes
0
answers
37
views
History of Path algebras
I want some references that point the inventor of Path algebras and history/evolution of these algebras from the first idea. If possible.
I tried to search in many different places, but all times, ...
2
votes
1
answer
91
views
Glass ball drop experiment
Several years ago, I remember reading about an experiment, and I thought it was in Newton's Principia, so the experiment was conducted in that time frame. The experiment involved timing the fall of a ...
- 121
3
votes
1
answer
156
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 ...
- 5,777
5
votes
1
answer
156
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When did non-SI double prefixes go out of use?
In old physics and engineering publications from the 1950s or so, it's common to see non-SI "double prefixes", such as a "millimicrosecond pulse", or a "10 micromicrofarad" capacitor.
These units are ...
- 261
1
vote
1
answer
165
views
How was it determined that the photoelectric effect is independent of the intensity of light?
How as light intensity measured or determined around 1900? For example, when it was determined that the photoelectric effect was independent of the intensity of the light beam, but rather that it ...
- 121
4
votes
3
answers
274
views
Did anyone mention the possibility of antimatter before 1928?
In 1932 positron and annihilation were discovered, but in 1928 Dirac had provided a formula allowing for the positron
Did anyone between that date and the discovery of electron ever imagine or ...
- 703
-5
votes
1
answer
236
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What was the work of Robert Muchielli's, a French psychologist, role in the Rwandan Genocide? [closed]
I read recently in an in-depth book-length study by an investigative journalist on the Rwandan Genocide that the work of the French psychologist, Robert Muchielli, was implicated in organised ...
- 3,708
4
votes
1
answer
984
views
When did the idea of thoughts occuring in the human head originate?
The early reference to the brain is found in Edwin Smith Papyrus
The Edwin Smith Papyrus, an ancient Egyptian medical treatise written
in the 17th century BC, contains the earliest recorded ...
- 363
2
votes
1
answer
116
views
What is the Leroy Grumman Medal won by the theoretical physicist Kenneth G. Wilson?
I happened to find that one of the most important inventors of the renormalization group, Kenneth G. Wilson, won the Leroy Randle Grumman Award Medal in 1986, 4 years after his Nobel prize. Details in ...
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6
votes
1
answer
491
views
Did Jacobi invent the Hungarian algorithm for the assignment problem over a century before Kőnig and Egerváry?
Wikipedia says:
In 2006, it was discovered that Carl Gustav Jacobi had solved the assignment problem in the 19th century, and the solution had been published posthumously in 1890 in Latin.
The ...
- 449
4
votes
1
answer
231
views
How did $SU(2)$ came into physics?
It is natural for physicists to consider the group $SO(3)$. Presumably, $SU(2)$ came into physics because of quantum mechanics. How did people realize that when studying rotation of a physical system, ...
- 909
4
votes
1
answer
94
views
Is there a record of how Newton built his telescope?
Did Newton write down his process of building a reflector telescope? Even with modern knowledge and technology, building one is no easy task so I'm curious of exactly what Newton did.
- 203
1
vote
1
answer
235
views
Where did Mac Lane say he saw Hitler and wished that he had a gun so he could have shot him?
In Saunders Mac Lane's autobiography he described how he visited, I think Königsberg, then the centre of mathematics in Germany. He also reported he that he saw Hitler somewhere and that he wished ...
- 3,708
1
vote
2
answers
305
views
What is the ancient cosmic canon of proportion and its role in the history of science?
Who had direct inside knowledge of the canon through the alleged secret oral tradition? Some possible examples that have been alluded to include Pythagoras, Plato, Euclid, Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, ...
2
votes
1
answer
137
views
How was (non-instantaneous) electric current first discovered?
How was (non-instantaneous) electric current first discovered and what were some of the main first thoughts on it?
- 345
10
votes
1
answer
1k
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Who was the first to weigh chemical reaction products?
It is said that Lavoisier and Lomonosov both discovered that the cumulated mass of reactants is conserved. My question is simple: who (and when) started weighing chemical products before and after ...
- 352
2
votes
1
answer
388
views
Did Darwin say that the human menstrual cycle length was influenced by the tides?
According to this article from the BBC's Science Focus
Charles Darwin thought that the 28-day human menstrual cycle was
evidence that our ancestors lived on the seashore and needed to
...
- 133
11
votes
2
answers
202
views
Where are Pierre Samuel's videos of Bourbaki proceedings available?
Wikipedia's article on Pierre Samuel claims (uncitedly):
He was a member of the Bourbaki group, and filmed some of their meetings. A French television documentary on Bourbaki broadcast some of this ...
- 243
2
votes
0
answers
107
views
Thomas Kuhn and the Relationship between Astronomy and Cosmology
In The Copernican Revolution, Thomas Kuhn states that "...only the Western civilizations which descend from Hellenic Greece have paid much attention to the appearance of the heavens in arriving at [...
- 121
6
votes
4
answers
497
views
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 ...
- 211
4
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0
answers
161
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 ...
- 149
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votes
1
answer
125
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Why does 'Wheatstone bridge' carries Wheatstone's name when it was invented by someone else?
Wheatstone Bridge was invented by Mr. Samuel Hunter Christie. So, How come it carries Mr Charles Wheatstone's name?
I would like to know what each of them contributed toward the 'Wheatstone bridge' ...
- 1
4
votes
1
answer
851
views
Were decimal fractions known in Europe before Stevin?
It is commonly[1,2] held that Simon Stevin introduced the decimal number system with the decimal point (at least in Europe) in his 1585 book De Thiende. However, in della Porta's book Magia Naturalis, ...
- 247
8
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Why do many names of technical and scientific subjects end with "ics"?
The names of many technical and scientific subjects, like mathematics, physics, statistics, etc., etc., end with letters "ics". What is meant by this, if anything? Was there any logic behind it or is ...
- 81
0
votes
3
answers
232
views
When did the term 'scientist, physicist, science, physicist' come in use?
Down to the eighteenth century physics was called philosophia naturalis.
When were the terms Physics, Science and Scientist, introduced? By whom? When did they supplant the old ones?
- 703
9
votes
8
answers
528
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) ...
- 199
4
votes
1
answer
250
views
Who axiomatized classical mechanics in 1949?
According to Peter Machamer's "A Brief Historical Introduction to the Philosophy of Science" (The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Science, p. 7)
... classical mechanics was not axiomatized ...
- 477
6
votes
1
answer
259
views
When did the use of Sine and Cosine as functions become mainstream?
In the work of early physicists like Newton, everything is explained in terms of cumbersome (in today's standards) geometry. They don't talk about "cosines" of certain angle, but about proportions ...
- 203
2
votes
0
answers
265
views
Where did Euler derive the wave equation in 3d?
Wikipedia claims that Euler was the first do derive the wave equation in 3d. In which of his writings can I find this?
- 1,785
1
vote
1
answer
506
views
Can any one person be credited with "inventing" algebra?
I have been told by a computer scientist that most people in that field believe that algebra was invented (along with algorithms) by the 9th century mathematician Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi. (I ...
- 19
4
votes
0
answers
199
views
When was the ratio between electric and magnetic forces in an electromagnetic field established?
We know that the magnetic force on a particle moving in a magnetic field was found by J.J. Thomson in 1881, with a slight mistake, and then corrected by Heaviside in 1885 to $F_M = q\,v\times B$.
Can ...
- 703
0
votes
1
answer
2k
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Are these Newton's quotes apocryphal?
I have stumbled upon the following alleged Newton's quotes, but I could not find them in any of their works.
No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess.
No sciences are better attested ...
- 171
2
votes
1
answer
668
views
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 ...
- 23
4
votes
1
answer
279
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Do other branches of modern science have interpretations like Quantum Mechanics does?
As a layperson, when one learns about Quantum Mechanics, one also learns about the various interpretations of QM-- Many Worlds, Collapse, Pilot Wave theory, etc.
However, as far as I can tell (from ...
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