# Tag Info

### Has there ever been a case where someone wished a theorem or important result wasn't named after them? Has it happened more than once?

On the Löwenheim–Skolem theorem: It is somewhat ironic that Skolem's name is connected with the upward direction of the theorem as well as with the downward direction: "I follow custom in ...
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### Are there any mathematical objects that got renamed over time?

Newton referred to his concept of a derivative as a "fluxion". He called time-varying functions "fluents". Generally speaking, it is common for important mathematical concepts and ...
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Accepted

### Are there any mathematical objects that got renamed over time?

Another example is the notion of orbifolds. Originally, it was introduced by Satake in 1950s under the (nondescriptive) name V-manifolds. Then, beginning in 1980s, under the influence of William ...
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### Has there ever been a case where someone wished a theorem or important result wasn't named after them? Has it happened more than once?

According to a recent episode of PBS Space Time, Freeman Dyson "regretted" the Dyson Sphere being named after him. According to the Wikipedia article Dyson was not the first to advance this ...
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### How did "royal we" become a standard of scientific writing?

The "we" in the scientific papers does not mean the "royal we". This "we" means "you and I", that is "the author and the reader". For example, in proving something they say "let us consider"... and ...
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Accepted

### Who came up with R for the universal gas constant?

I quote from Ask the Historian "The Universal Gas Constant" by William B. Jensen, Department of Chemistry, University of Cincinnati, published in J. Chem. Educ., 2003, 80, 731-732 Question Why is ...
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### Name of Polaris before it became a pole star?

Except for very few conspicuous stars (like Sirius), most stars had no individual names in the ancient Greece and Rome. In particular, in Ptolemy catalog, no star in Ursa Minor has a name. Polaris is ...
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### Has there ever been a case where someone wished a theorem or important result wasn't named after them? Has it happened more than once?

Let me tell two anecdotes related to the question: Once during a seminar talk Hilbert asked: "What is a Hilbert space?" Arnold, apparently envious for so many things named after Anosov, ...
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