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1500 questions
20
votes
3 answers
Why is kg the standard unit for mass and not g in SI?
Why is $\mathrm{kg}$ the standard unit for mass and not $\mathrm{g}$?
I know that there is the kilogramme des Archives which is a kilogram and not a gram. But originally on April 7, 1795 the gram was defined as
The absolute weight of a volume of…
wythagoras
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20
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1 answer
What was the historical context of the development of Taylor series?
I knew about linear approximations, quadratic approximations and the use of Taylor polynomials to approximate a function. Furthermore, I was aware of other applications of Taylor polynomials and the intuition behind them from this link.
As far as I…
shahed al mamun
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20
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1 answer
Who first realized that $\int \frac 1x dx =\ln(x)+c$?
Who discovered the non-obvious identity $\int \frac 1x dx=\ln(x)+c$ ? Were power series involved? The series look similar on the opposite sides of $1$:
$$ \frac 1x =\sum_{n=0}^\infty (-1+x)^n \text{ for } |x-1|<1 $$
$$ \ln(x) =…
Dale
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20
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1 answer
Why did Rene Descartes go to Sweden?
The year before he died, mathematician Rene Descartes accepted an invitation to tutor the brilliant 19-year old Queen Christina of Sweden (some thirty years younger). He apparently died from the Swedish cold and long hours on the job.
I find it…
Tom Au
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20
votes
1 answer
Why is the radical symbol $\sqrt{}$ called "radical"?
This question arose in
a conversation with a teacher who was introducing square roots to her students.
I know from the website
Earliest Uses of Symbols of Operation
that the symbol $\sqrt{}$ has its origin in medieval times.
But I have not found why…
Joseph O'Rourke
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20
votes
2 answers
Origin of 360 degrees?
This is by far one of the most challenging and popular HSM questions on the Net. Proofs are, countless discussions about it in math forums. The answers only led to two theories, which Wikipedia does a great job at summing up.
The original…
M.A.R.
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20
votes
3 answers
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 German and Banach was Polish, and there did not appear to be any…
Tom Au
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20
votes
1 answer
Why was the continental drift theory of Alfred Wegener so controversial in the first part of the 20th century?
I frequently hear and read that Wegener's theory was very controversial at the time it was suggested. Why was this so? Was it due to Wegener himself, to evidence that was erroneously interpreted at that time, or to something else?
Peabody
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20
votes
1 answer
Markov chains origins and how is Christianity involved
In a book called Advanced Data Analysis from an Elementary Point of View by Cosma Rohilla Shalizi, page 405, the first instance of "Markov process" is accompanied by a footnote which reads
After the Russian mathematician A. A. Markov, who…
John Cataldo
20
votes
3 answers
What type of abrasive grit was used to grind lenses for telescopes?
Today the standard for fine grit is Alumina and Cerium Oxide. However, in the 1600s, the elements Al and Ce were not known.
What type of fine grit did they use to grind and polish the lenses for telescopes?
I've hunted for this online quite a lot,…
DrZ214
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20
votes
1 answer
When was it realized that the giant planets do not have solid surfaces?
When was it realized that the gas giant planets Jupiter and Saturn, and the ice giant planets Uranus and Neptune, do not have solid surfaces?
When was that idea first proposed and when was it accepted by astronomers?
M.A. Golding
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20
votes
4 answers
Emmy Noether or Emmy Nöther?
Is it OK to write Emmy Nöther instead of Emmy Noether? I always assumed that the oe was an anglicization of ö (o with an umlaut). But when I look her up, I never see Nöther.
Stephen Montgomery-Smith
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19
votes
2 answers
Who invented the way we write exponentiation?
Why do we write $a^n$ instead of $^n\!a$ for exponentiation? What benefit is there to writing the base before the exponent? With addition and multiplication order doesn't matter since $a + b = b + a$, so why was $a^n$ chosen, and who popularised…
Frank Vel
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19
votes
5 answers
What led to the rise of Göttingen?
this is a counter part to my other question: What led to the fall of Göttingen?.
Göttingen was a major university in which many famous physicists and mathematicians lived. It was located in Germany, almost in the middle of nowhere to my…
tox123
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19
votes
3 answers
What was the last important scientific work written in Latin?
In a recent post on math.se, I suggested that G. Peano's Arithmetices
principia, nova methodo exposita (1889) was probably the last important scientific work written in Latin. This work set forth the so-called Peano axioms, which are still of major…
Mark Dominus
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