All Questions
4,128
questions
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Who first defined complex analytic spaces?
By a complex analytic space I mean what Wikipedia calls a “complex analytic variety” (complex analytic spaces need not be Hausdorff). I am trying to learn about the history of this notion.
In H. ...
3
votes
0
answers
99
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Motivating several of Gauss's suggestions for prize problems in the years 1830, 1834
P. 220-221 of volume 12 of Gauss's werke contain a complete list of the prize problems which Gauss suggested to the Goettingen university in the years 1830, 1834, 1842 and 1849. Those prize problems ...
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17
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5
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What are the most precise measurements in science?
In 1957, Littlewood wrote that these are measurements of time in astronomy.
Astronomers operate with times intervals between astronomical events 1000 years apart with accuracy 1/1000 of a second. This ...
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19
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1
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3k
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How did Ptolemy know that days were unequal lengths?
Apparently Ptolemy was aware of the fact that the duration of time from noon to noon varied by many seconds throughout the course of a year. In modern times this fluctuation in length of day leads to ...
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6
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68
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Who popularized the atom icon (atom whirl or planetary model)
There is a symbol or icon for an atom that is instantly recognizable and is associated with nuclear physics and with chemistry. A search for "nuclear atom symbol" (on 3/23/2023) shows what ...
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3
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+50
Original description of point sources and point spread functions
I already asked this question in the Astronomy community, but there it was recommended to me to also try my luck here.
I would like to know the original description of point sources and point spread ...
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0
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32
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Did Napoleon aggressively industrialise after the Treaty of Amiens? [closed]
As far as I know, Britain and France were still spoiling for a fight; Britain having lost colonies and France invading Switzerland.
If Napoleon knew this, did he encourage British or American ...
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136
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Ancient Chinese method to calculating $\pi$
I'm trying to understand the following passage from Boyer's and Merzbach's History of Mathematics:
The question I have is: how does the author derive that $w^2=2rv$?
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2
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277
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Who published the law of tangents first?
The Law of Tangents is a rather obscure trigonometric identity that is sometimes used in place of its better-known counterparts, the law of sines and law of cosines, to calculate angles or sides in a ...
0
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32
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How did the intergovernmental panel on climate change get established and become the authority on the topic?
I am interested in both the science communication and the "politics" of how this happened. How did we go from "A consensus of evidence has started to emerge that man-made climate change ...
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46
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Did Russell's paradox affect Peano's construction in the Formulario?
Russell's letter to Frege in 1902 was after the first edition of the Formulario Mathematico but before the fifth one (1908).
So I wondered if the discovery of Russell's paradox had made Peano to edit ...
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22
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3
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3k
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What is the origin of the rubber sheet analogy?
I am trying to track down the first use of the 'bowling ball on a rubber sheet' analogy to explain spacetime curvature in general relativity. I have found a lot of secondary sources that give ...
- 321
3
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1
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204
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Did the ancient Romans know and use the catenary test when building arches and bridges?
I am trying to understand if ancient Romans understood and used the catenary test when building bridges. I cannot find anything online
- 145
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84
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Cauchy integral formula [duplicate]
There is an integral Cauchy formula. It would be nice to know who exactly (for the first time) added Cauchy's name to a formula that Cauchy was not the author of. Who do you think it could be?
But ...
1
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2
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152
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New mathematics theory vs new mathematical theorem
On the Academia site, there is a recent question that asks about obtaining reviewers for a "new theory". I'm only an amateur mathematician, not a professional, and the question got me ...
- 135
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97
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Historical origins of the idea that information cannot travel faster than light
Is there a good book or other reference that discusses the historical origins of the principle that not even information can travel faster than the speed of light? In my understanding the main reason ...
- 109
2
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2
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137
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Origin of Riemann-Stieltjes Integral
What need (if there was any) created Riemann-Stieltjes integral? What did Riemann-Stieltjes integral want to attain?
- 665
3
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1
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188
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On early US patriotism to choose quark color charge labels
Sean Carroll has a video about gauge theory (2020) in his series about Greatest Ideas of the Universe, where he claims that early in the development of quantum chromodynamics, some physicists tried to ...
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76
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Why a second edition of EGA was never published?
Grothendieck's Éléments de géométrie algébrique, also known as EGA, was originally devised to consist of thirteen volumes (as stated in the introduction of the first volume), from which Grothendieck ...
1
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0
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53
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Who discovered the rule for the definite integration of a function summed with its inverse function across a fixed limit?
I saw this rule used in an MIT integration bee that gives a result for the definite integral of a function summed with its inverse across a fixed limit:
$$\int_{x_1}^{x_2}f(x) + f^{-1}(x)dx = x_{2}^{2}...
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1
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116
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When did Macaulay rings become Cohen-Macaulay rings?
In his book on commutative rings (published 1970), Kaplansky talks about Macaulay rings. In the mid 1970's, I learned some commutative algebra from a student of his, who referred to these rings as ...
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147
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Cauchy Integral Formula who opened? [closed]
Cauchy Integral Formula who actually proved it? The teacher asked the following task: who actually discovered this integral formula? need historical background, but it's not Cauchy! Help!
24
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1
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3k
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Euler: “A baby on his lap, a cat on his back — that’s how he wrote his immortal works” (origin?)
Euler was a non-confrontational and deeply religious person. He was kind and could get on well with anyone. He worked under any circumstances and in any environment: “A baby on his lap, a cat on his ...
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1
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172
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Use of the verb "induct" in proofs by mathematical induction
Occasionally, in a proof by mathematical induction, the writer will say something like, "We induct on $n$" or "We induct on the number of vertices." This usage of the verb induct ...
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50
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In which work did Euler invent the Euler Substitutions for a quadratic composed into a radical?
A famous technique in the modification of integrands is the set of “euler substitutions” that provide substitutions for the structure
$$\sqrt{ax^2 +bx+c}$$
That is a fairly common occurence in ...
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59
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Who produced the first permanent horseshoe magnet: Johann Dietrich or Gilles-Augustin Bazin?
Several recent sources state that the first known permanent horseshoe magnet was produced by the instrument maker Johann Dietrich of Basel, probably in 1743. However, several older French sources ...
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4
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1
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93
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How the present technology related to big data as example influences the way history of science is done?
Heard recently about digital humanities as a new paradigm of inquiry into the history of mankind and other humanities. Is the historiography of science informed by technological advances that could ...
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1k
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Is Koestler's ‘The Sleepwalkers’ still well regarded? Is there a more recent similar source?
Arthur Koestler's The Sleepwalkers is well-known as both a group biography of Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler and Galileo and an account of the revolutionary turn in astronomy that, in Koestler's phrasing, ...
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146
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Why is so much of modern mathematics rooted in Germany?
Whenever I read some Mathematic theories, I find it they are typically done by some people living in Germany. Eg: Riemann, Gauss, Moses Schoenfinkel etc. I want to know what Germany did to arise so ...
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48
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Views of stellar energy before fusion
Before there was an understanding of nuclear fusion, what hypotheses were there about the source of stellar energy? What methods, if any, were suggested for testing the hypotheses; alternatively, how ...
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123
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The etymology of "radio waves"
The word "radio" originates from "radius", which in turn came from "ray". That's why "radius" means any line from a central focal point to any directions.
...
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72
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Permanent horseshoe magnet: primary sources of information about its invention? (Johann Dietrich and Daniel Bernoulli)
There seems to be general agreement that the first known horseshoe magnet (permanent, not electromagnet) was produced by the instrument maker Johann Dietrich of Basel, probably in 1743. Dietrich also ...
- 355
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127
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Source of a quote and a story
I read a story and a quote few years ago on a mathematical community in my country and today I just suddenly reminiscend of and want to know whether they are real or not and if it is the former case ...
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2
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151
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Why did Einstein's teacher say that Einstein's presence alone undermined his authority?
Based on the excellent answer from @njuffa in the post Is it true that Albert Einstein was kicked out of high school due to his "peacefulness"? there is a quote from what the "home-room ...
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1
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153
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Were scientific discoveries ever inspired by art?
We can often see art that is influenced by science, be it in paintings, music, novels or movies. But has any idea from the arts ever influenced a scientist to come up with a new discovery or idea?
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34
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Project Orion -- where the designers aware of the possibility of collisions with small particles?
Interesting thing about the nuclear-propelled spacecraft design is that it was begun years before manned flight and even before the earliest unmanned craft sent to Luna and Venus (by the Soviets -- ...
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1
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117
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How did Aristotle explain the motion of living things moving by themselves, and falling of objects, with his hypothesis of all motion needing a cause?
Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC), a pioneering, iconoclastic, and brilliant ancient Greek philosopher, made the observation in his books that the long term stable state of objects is at rest, that motion ...
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23
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Did Jean Picard discovery of mercurial phosphorescence lead to Newton's studies of light's visible spectrum?
We read in Wikipedia: "Jean Picard discovery of mercurial phosphorescence upon his observance of the faint glowing of a barometer, led to Newton's studies of light's visible spectrum." Is ...
2
votes
2
answers
102
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What are the various manuscripts/transmissions of Newton's book "The Method of Fluxions"?
I am looking for which manuscripts and if available, through what chains of transmission copies of Newton's book "TheMethod of Fluxions" have reached us today
So far I could not find ...
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Is it true that Albert Einstein was kicked out of high school due to his "peacefulness"?
In an interview I recently saw with Joseph Agassi he said that:
...The teachers that kicked him out asked that it be written in his [Einstein's] report card that they have no complaint against him. ...
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1
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100
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Aristotelian explanation of magnetism
How did Aristotle explain magnetism? As far as I know, there were only 7 postulates in Aristotelian mechanics:
The first hypothesis Earth is the center of the universe.
Second hypothesis All material ...
1
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0
answers
40
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Poisson's laws for adiabatic processes
I've been reading about Thermodynamics lately. The set of equations satisfied in an adiabatic process (and also more generally in polytropic ones) is:
$$p_1V_1^\gamma = p_2V_2^\gamma$$
$$T_1V_1^{\...
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Golden Gnomon inside an Equilateral Triangle - Hermetic Symbol. Have you seen this object?
This has been discovered in a Jacobean publication. It houses Albrecht Durer's Vesica Piscis. There are 3 other properties that were all illustrated on the discovery, that's how I found them. They are ...
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152
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How did Copernicus find the nodes of Mars? what were they?
I'm trying to find the location of the nodes of Mars (i.e., the point of intersection between the ecliptic and Mars's plane [rather I should say Mars average plane]) given by Copernicus. According to ...
- 261
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99
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Early results on the Fourier transform
Published tables of Fourier transform pairs have been available for many years. One such example is the paper by George Campbell in the Bell Systems Technical Journal in 1928. Most such tables simply ...
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3
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130
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Origin of the usage of $\lambda$ to represent eigenvalues
I'm curious whether anyone knows how $\lambda$ came to be used to represent eigenvalues and or who (if anyone) was responsible for the convention. I've looked through a couple of books on the history ...
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130
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Was Niklas Luhmann critical of environmental movements?
A number of years ago, during the break at a social theory seminar, someone mentioned that Niklas Luhmann was highly critical of environmental movements. Since the seminar was more about systems ...
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3
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1
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132
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What is the title of the 1676 Memoir in which Leibniz first used the Chain Rule?
On Wikipedia it says:
"The chain rule seems to have first been used by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. He used it to calculate the derivative. He first mentioned it in a 1676 memoir [ Chain Rule ...
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85
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What research articles were inspired by web comics?
Currently, I'm doing a PhD on the applications of algorithms to generate timelines of textual content. Recently, I found an article entitled "StoryFlow: Tracking the Evolution of Stories" by ...
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172
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History of visualization in science and math - where may I read of it?
I am looking to inquire into the role of visualization in sciences and math and wish to read about the history of visualization in those fields and also wonder where I might read about the ...
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