All Questions
4,412
questions
10
votes
1
answer
353
views
Why did 92% of cases of simultaneous discovery in the 17th century end in dispute?
I read on
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_publishing :
One of the earliest research journals is the Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society, created in the 17th century. At
that ...
- 3,263
20
votes
3
answers
759
views
What was the connection between David Hilbert and Stefan Banach?
The so-called "Hilbert space" is named after mathematician David Hilbert. Later, this was generalized into "Banach spaces" by Stefan Banach.
My understanding is that Hilbert was ...
- 2,154
17
votes
1
answer
306
views
Did the Digges Telescope actually exist?
There are many claimants for the first telescope. Amongst these are the claims placed at the doors of Bacon and Digges. The Bacon claim is very sketchy, boiling down to one sentence and is easy to ...
- 2,068
10
votes
1
answer
89
views
Was the take off of neural computing research in the 80's due to Japan?
Chow, Tommy WS, and John Sum. "Guest editorial: special issue on the emerging applications of neural networks." Neural Computing & Applications 20.7 (2011): 923-924. says:
The take off of ...
- 3,263
29
votes
2
answers
2k
views
When and how was the geometric understanding of gauge theories developed?
In theoretical physics, the modern perspective on gauge theory is that it is most elegantly described in the 'language' of differential geometry. I am interested in the history behind these ideas.
...
Danu♦
- 3,812
74
votes
5
answers
14k
views
Why was Évariste Galois killed?
It is well known that Évariste Galois died a young man. I have heard that he died in a duel. What was the duel about? More rather what is the back story behind his death and did he really write down ...
- 1,556
9
votes
1
answer
705
views
What theories preceded the wave, particles and duality models of light?
Currently, the wave-particle duality model for light is the accepted model. From HyperPhysics:
The evidence for the description of light as waves was well established at the turn of the century ...
user22
25
votes
1
answer
1k
views
When did the names of scientists first become the names of scientific units?
Many scientific units are named after scientists, for example,
Tesla for magnetic flux
Farad for capacitance
Newton for force.
When did the tradition of naming scientific units begin?
user22
23
votes
4
answers
10k
views
Ancient Chinese numbering system
It has been said that the invention of zero was a great leap forward, not only in abstract understanding, but in the ability to introduce place value notation and do computations; computing using ...
- 663
74
votes
3
answers
14k
views
What evidence is there that Fermat had a proof for his Last Theorem?
Aside from the fact that Fermat was a genius, is it probable that he actually did have a proof?
Some specifics that I think would point one way or another:
Would the mathematics of his day allow him ...
- 1,295
25
votes
4
answers
5k
views
Irrationality of the square root of 2
We know that Pythagoreans in Ancient Greece discovered that the square root of two is an irrational number. Why was that discovery historically significant? What value was that knowledge to the ...
- 359
15
votes
1
answer
512
views
Cauchy's undead theory
A well known urban legend states that Cauchy's last words to the Academy where:
C'est ce que j'expliquerai plus au long dans un prochain mémoire. ("I will explain it in greater detail in my next ...
- 1,886