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1500 questions
14
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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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14
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3 answers
When did humans realize that there is no air on the Moon?
What is the easiest evidence that there is no air on the Moon?
Frankly speaking, I myself have no idea how to prove it.
wdlang
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14
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Was Pólya’s “How To Solve It” originally written in German or English (or some other language)?
I seem to fail at googling a simple question: In which language did Pólya originally write “How To Solve It” (or “Schule des Denkens”, as is the German title)? Did he translate the book himself to other languages?
k.stm
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14
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How did we come up with the name "atomic bomb"?
At first, my initiate question was: What is the difference between an atomic and a nuclear bomb?:
Nuclear bombs are of two types — those that depend on fission, like atomic bombs, and those that depend on fusion, like hydrogen bombs
Regardless of…
Ooker
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14
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Did most or just few physicists think in 1900 that there was nothing important left to discover?
For example, the whole microscopic world was unknown - isn't that a fundamental problem even bigger than the "two clouds" to solve? They could regard atoms, electrons and other discovered particles as the basic building blocks of the universe, but…
jw_
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14
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2 answers
History of italicising variables and mathematical formatting in general
In the modern day, especially with the advent of $\mathrm\TeX$, it is common practice to italicise variables. This can be seen as far back as Hann, J. (1850). Examples on the Integral Calculus. What's the oldest example of this and when did it…
Shaikh Ammar
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14
votes
3 answers
What does this cover of a 1508 German book on arithmetic depict?
In a 1508 German book on arithmetic for merchants, this image appears on the cover (high resolution and context here):
What is this depicting? Who are these people and what are their roles? In particular, what are the symbols on the table? What is…
Michael
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14
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3 answers
Historical example of research papers being misinterpreted due to poor wording and creating controversy?
Is there any example of major controversy in the scientific community caused due to poor wording and/or misinterpretation of words?
Akif Ismail
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13
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2 answers
Early history of the phase concept in the physical sciences
One of the first distinctions encountered in science education is that substances can assume different states of matter: for example, water can be found as a liquid, as a solid (ice), or as a gas (water vapor).
This concept gradually becomes more…
Semiclassical
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13
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2 answers
When were vectors invented?
Encyclopedia Britannica says,
In their modern form, vectors appeared late in the 19th century when Josiah Willard Gibbs and Oliver Heaviside (...) independently developed vector analysis to express the new laws of electromagnetism discovered by ...…
Joseph O'Rourke
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13
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2 answers
Was there early opposition to Newton's mechanics?
Scientific theories are rarely accepted immediately. Even if the evidence for a theory is impeccable, there will be some stragglers who resist it for lack of understanding. More interesting is when a theory that ultimately turns out to be true is…
Display Name
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13
votes
2 answers
How long has the order of priority of arithmetical operations been widely taught in high schools?
Browsing Facebook, I often come across posts like this, to test peoples' understanding of order of operations.
This inevitably prompts a deluge of answers that either misunderstand the concept or appear completely unaware of it.
Occasionally,…
Joel Roberts
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13
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2 answers
What examples led to the modern definition of a topological space?
Today the language of topological spaces via open sets is fundamental in many different areas of mathematics, and it is a bit mysterious that the same formalism successfully captures such a wide variety of behavior. I can think of several…
Paul Siegel
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13
votes
8 answers
Historical examples of "pseudoscience" becoming "science"
What are some historical examples of theories/ideas that were initially labeled "pseudoscience" and later considered legitimate "science"? I don't mean theories or ideas that were initially not accepted or ignored and later accepted, but things that…
user7496
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13
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3 answers
Did Richard Feynman ever meet Stephen Hawking or comment on Hawking radiation?
I was just curious what Richard Feynman thought of Stephen Hawking's Hawking Radiation. Feynman was one of the developers of quantum field theory and Hawking's work would have been cutting edge on the unification of gravity with quantum…
Sedumjoy
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