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1500 questions
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Who created topology, and when, and what problems led to this creation?
Who created topology, when did that happen, and how was it discovered?
Victor
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Pythagoras vs. the idea of Pythagoras
Maybe we need some replies on current scholarly thinking.
(Judging from some replies here, many of us are still using the myths current 100 years ago.)
Is it true (as I have heard) that most, if not all, of the things attributed to Pythagoras and…
Gerald Edgar
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When and on what basis was it decided that an hour have 60 minutes and a minute have 60 seconds?
There were always some or he other means of measuring(estimating) the time.
But I always wonder that when and how the present time system (1 Hr. = 60 Min.,
1 Min. = 60 Sec.) evolved ?
Amit Tyagi
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What data did Kepler work out his laws from?
It's well known that Kepler worked out his laws by fitting curves to Tycho Brahe's data on the trajectories of planets through the sky. What was this data? How does one record the trajectory of a planet through the sky? A pair of angles measured…
Jack M
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What mathematical developments/discoveries caused imaginary numbers to gain acceptance at the time (18th century) they did?
In a Wiki article on imaginary numbers it was asserted that "the use of imaginary numbers was not widely accepted until the work of Leonhard Euler (1707–1783) and Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855)."
What motivated Euler's and Gauss's contributions to…
Tom Au
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Who first introduced the notation $\mathcal{O}$ in algebraic geometry or algebraic number theory
This is my first question for HSM. If it is consider too specialized for HSM, perhaps it can be migrated to MathOverflow.
In algebraic number theory, one frequently denotes the ring of algebraic integers in a number field $K$ by $O_K$. Similarly in…
Todd Trimble
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Conflict between physics and philosophy
In the old days. stars of physicists like Einstein$^{[1]}$, Poincare, Heisenberg, Pauli, $^{[2]}$ Bohr and so on are quite philosophical mind, and like philosophy. $^{[3]}$
But now, it seems to me a totally different matter - physicists like Steven…
Shing
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19
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2 answers
What was different about Planck's quantization of light compared to Einstein's?
In describing black body radiation Planck assumed that the energy that can be absorbed or emitted by charges is quantized, i.e., they can only absorb or emit certain quantities of energy. But it was Einstein, who postulated the photon. I have two…
Quantum spaghettification
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How did "royal we" become a standard of scientific writing?
Single authors referring to themselves as "we" is still commonplace today, and already Newton was we-ing in Principia. There is even a Latin term for we-ing, nosism, from "nos", which is Latin for "we". Googling "royal we in scientific writing"…
Conifold
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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 what is referred to as the equation of time. Now,…
Jagerber48
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What did Schroedinger try to say with the cat thought experiment?
In many books one finds different explanations. Specifically popular seems to be that he "argued against the Copenhagen interpretation". But what did he really intend to communicate?
I for myself have tried to come up with an answer to this…
manuel459
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1 answer
Did president Garfield make any contributions to Mathematics?
All I know about Garfield and math was that he made an original proof of the Pythagorean theorem. Did he make any other mathematical advancement (big or small)?
user15948
19
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3 answers
Where were mathematical/science works posted before the arxiv website?
Arxiv website is very good at collecting mathematical/science work updates. However, where were mathematical/science work updates posted before arxiv website existed?
Maxx Woods
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Did the pioneers of nuclear physics and radioactivity eventually get sick from their experiments?
We read about nuclear physics and radioactivity in books and we know how to keep safe from their harmful effects, but the physicists who first discovered them didn't have that luxury. Did the pioneers of this type of physics eventually get sick from…
Craig Feinstein
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Is this Einstein rejection letter fake?
So I found this on the internet the other day-
Is this fake?
Are there any ways to prove that it's fake?
Does there, if any, exist any real copy of such a rejection letter?(Was Einstein ever really rejected?)
I thought that why should people…
Soham
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