24
votes
What was the Big Bang model originally called?
Lemaitre, who proposed the first version of "Big Bang" in 1927, called it Primeval Atom hypothesis since late 1930s, notably in the 1950 book of this name. However, it was rather different ...
- 80k
16
votes
Accepted
What equation is Stephen Hawking most noted for?
One can only speculate what Hawking will be remembered for, but according to NYT in 2002 he apparently expressed a wish to have what he saw as his biggest accomplishment engraved on his tombstone (...
- 80k
8
votes
What was the Big Bang model originally called?
Georges Lemaître called it “hypothesis of the primeval atom” in 1931. See Georges Lemaître, Father of the Big Bang, which is an excerpt from Cosmic Horizons: Astronomy at the Cutting Edge, edited by ...
- 5,976
7
votes
Early geographically accurate drawings of Earth
Wikipedia has a good list of such maps. The first one for me that shows the continents roughly as we see today (Minus Antarctica) seems to be the Kunyu Wanguo Quantu 1602 map, included below, which is ...
- 171
5
votes
Accepted
Was Fred Hoyle’s career due, in part, to the popularity of the static universe in 1950s?
The quoted passage is a bit exaggerated, but the gist is right, at least for a segment of scientists. The main driving force was anti-theism, the Big Bang cosmology looked uncomfortably close to the ...
- 80k
4
votes
Was an expanding universe proposed before Edwin Hubble's observations?
This is an extended comment to Ben Crowell's answer. Friedmann proved that
without the "cosmological term" the universe cannot be stationary: has either to
expand or contract. As a result of this ...
- 51.1k
3
votes
Nowadays I see a distinct "line" dividing people working in Mathematics and the Physical Sciences. Why?
You can only answer your question by a bibliometric analysis over the far and recent past. Luckily, there are nowadays quite a lot of tools to evaluate the data. But this is a research question and ...
- 161
2
votes
Are Wheeler's It from Bit/Participatory Universe and the Multiverse related?
The dissonance comes from using the term "multiverse" too loosely. As far as Everett's many worlds and its derivatives, Wheeler supported Everett as his student, but distanced himself from his ...
- 80k
2
votes
Which modern sciences/technologies were contingent on the Copernican Revolution, & which could have developed even while believing in geocentrism?
Copernicus theory was crucial for the development of all sciences. It made possible Kepler's discovery of the true planet orbits, and this lead to the discovery of the Law of the Universal gravitation....
- 51.1k
2
votes
Why was Principia Proposition 43, Theorem 22 not published?
Final edition has both Proposition 43 and Theorem 22 (in book 1) but they are different from what you cite.
Book 3 contains only 42 propositions.
Of course we cannot penetrate Newton's mind, so this ...
- 51.1k
1
vote
Were Feynman diagrams motivated by the cosmological constant problem?
The first Feynman diagram in print appeared in Fig 1 , p 772 of "Space-Time Approach to Quantum Electrodynamics", R P Feynman,
Phys Rev 76 (1949) 769 – 789,
published 15 September 1949, not ...
- 1,949
1
vote
Accepted
Views of stellar energy before fusion
https://arxiv.org/abs/1609.02834
"The Source of Solar Energy, ca. 1840-1910: From Meteoric Hypothesis to Radioactive Speculations
Helge Kragh
Why does the Sun shine? Today we know the answer to ...
- 1,081
1
vote
How did they know that the space could expand?
The idea that space is expanding itself is not a radical idea. It's not even about physical reality. When we say that space expands onto itself, we do not mean a real physical phenomena, it is just a ...
- 883
1
vote
Was an expanding universe proposed before Edwin Hubble's observations?
Lemaitre, a Belgian Diocesan priest and also a scientist was a pioneer in applying GR to cosmology. He derived Hubbles law two years before Hubble actually experimentally demonstrated it to be true.
...
- 3,760
1
vote
Why is it that so many early astronomers and cosmologists wanted to believe in a static/infinite/eternal Universe?
Personally I'm surprised that this is the case given that for hundreds of years Europe was Christian and the biblical Genesis quite matter of factly said that the universe was created. It's strange ...
- 3,760
1
vote
What is the ancient cosmic canon of proportion and its role in the history of science?
Proportion is the key concept that underlies most of mathematics. In its modern guise, it's described as the straight line or linearity.
Now consider that the epitome of motion in Newtons theory is ...
- 3,760
1
vote
Nowadays I see a distinct "line" dividing people working in Mathematics and the Physical Sciences. Why?
Mathematics and physics have a long standing relationship. In some periods there is more interaction than at others. For example, there was a large amount of work in the 70s when physicists and ...
- 3,760
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