For questions about the lives of historical Scientists or Mathematicians
This tag should be used along with physicists, chemists, biologists or mathematicians tags as the case may be.
Questions tagged [biographical-details]
391 questions
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In what instances did Wolfgang Pauli say that something was 'not even wrong'?
One famous quote I've heard of Wolfgang Pauli is
It is not even wrong.
I've also heard that Pauli had a blustery, often unpleasant personality, and I vaguely recall hearing the phrase used in multiple instances. In which instances did Pauli use…
HDE 226868
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Who are some great scientists/mathematicians with not-so-great pre/mid-career credentials?
I am looking for examples of great minds (on any personally defined level) in the history of science and mathematics that had a considerably lesser pre/mid-career reputation/lifestyle/upbringing/etc. Here are a few examples:
The answers to this…
Arturo don Juan
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Who was D.A. Millin, the eponym of the Millin Series?
The Millin series is defined as:
$$\sum_{n \mathop = 0}^\infty \frac 1 {F_{2^n} }$$
where $F_n$ denotes the $n$th Fibonacci number.
It can be shown to equal $\dfrac {7 - \sqrt 5} 2$.
But who was the D.A. Millin who it is named after?
EDIT: User…
Prime Mover
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Einstein's assistants
Some previous questions on Einstein bring the following question: is a complete (or incomplete) list of Einstein assistants available somewhere?
A quick search on the Internet brings several familiar names, but no list.
I know many of them,
but I…
Alexandre Eremenko
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What events does the note at the beginning of Dialogue Concerning Two Systems refer to?
Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems opens with a seemingly sarcastic "Note to the discerning reader", beginning:
Several years ago there was published in Rome a salutary edict which, in order to obviate the dangerous…
Jack M
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Did Gauss see the analogy between number-theoretic concepts and knots?
According to the book "Models and Inferences in Science", p.156 - "the idea of a number-theoretic approach to knots goes to Gauss (1798), who used the analogy between primes and knots, and it was put forward by Schubert (1949) and Mazur (1973)".…
user2554
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Einstein's readings of popular sciences as a kid
“At the age of 12 to 16 I familiarized myself with the elements of mathematics together with the principles of differential and integral calculus. In doing so I had the good fortune of finding books which were not too particular in their logical…
copper
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Why was Rene Descartes not knighted?
I am curious to learn in more detail why Rene Descartes was not knighted like Isaac Newton and many other great mathematicians.
Joshua Banda
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Knowledge of Einstein during obtaining his graduation
I'm interested to know what mathematical and physics topics Einstein learnt during his graduation.Did he know about advanced mathematical topics such as Hamiltonian mechanics ,Lagrangian mechanics, Manifold and Differential topology .
Shahed al mamun
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What was Gauss' opinion of Lagrange,Laplace and Euler?
Do we have anything of what Gauss thought of these people from his works or anecdotes ?
GEP
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Is there any significance to Newton's theorem on decaying orbits in book 2 of his Principia?
My question refers to proposition 15 in book 2 of Isaac Newton's principia. In this proposition Newton stated sevaral corollaries on the orbital motion of bodies under a certain law of central force and under medium resistance that is proportional…
user2554
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What innovations did Leibniz introduce in his design of the fountain of the Herrenhausen Gardens?
As is obvious from my previous questions, i'm very curius to learn as much as i can about Leibniz's inventions, simply because i think his inventions contain that kind of technological ingenuity that enabled later technical developements to emerge.…
user2554
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Jean-Christophe Yoccoz (May 29, 1957 – September 3, 2016)
Outstanding French mathematician had also his Brasilian chapter in his life (or two chapters?). I'd like to know more.
The en.wikipedia tells us that Yoccoz was born, raised and educated in France,
"Yoccoz attended the Lycée Louis-le-Grand,[3]…
Wlod AA
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Who knows Frank Irvin?
In a German book by Helmut Kracke I found Frank Irvin mentioned. Irvin proved in 1916 the convergence of the harmonic series when all terms containing a 9 were omitted. I would like to include Irvin in my lecture but could not find anything about…
Franz Kurz
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Summary of Gauss's contributions to differential geometry, conformal mappings, and geodesy
G. Waldo Dunnington in his biography of Gauss states (on p. 165):"only a portion of his results in the field of curved surfaces was presented in the Disquisitiones generalis, and a second memoir on the subject was planned." I must mention in…
user2554
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