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1500 questions
13
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2 answers
What were theories for why and how we see things?
That we see things seems unquestionably obvious. But, when I try to think about how, I find it as a mystery.
The conventional answer nowadays to this question revolves around absorption and reflection of waves of some specific wavelength. And this…
Amit Tyagi
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Why did Newton want lines to be generated by continued motion of points rather than by apposition of parts?
The following passage has been extracted from the Newton's (John Stewart's English translated version) "Sir Issac Newton's two Treatises: Of the Quadrature of Curves, and Analysis by equations of an infinite number of terms":
I consider…
Sensebe
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13
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Why is Ingenhousz's 1784 study of fine charcoal in uncovered alcohol interpreted as Brownian motion, thus giving him priority over Brown?
I'm puzzled why the noted scientist Jan Ingenhousz's FRS reported study in the title has been almost universally interpreted by modern writers (in books, papers since ca. 1968, and now online resources) as Brownian motion being unwittingly observed…
David
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Did anybody question the indivisibility of the atom because there were "too many" elements?
The realisation that the atom was divisible, and thus that elements were not the "fundamental building blocks" arguably began around 1897 with J. J. Thomson's discovery of the electron and proceeded through the early 20C to Rutherford's experiments…
TripeHound
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13
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1 answer
How did Jun John Sakurai die?
How did theoretical physicist Jun John Sakurai die? The only result from extensive googling is that he died "suddenly" while working at CERN. Does anyone know anything more specific?
williamg
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13
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3 answers
Why did Cantor (and others) use $\mathfrak{c}$ for the continuum?
Kontinuum is German for continuum, but Cantor used $\mathfrak{c}$.
Revision. J.W.Perry questions whether or not Cantor ever in fact
used the symbol $\mathfrak{c}$. I must admit I just assumed that he did
from statements that say that Cantor proved…
Joseph O'Rourke
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13
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Why isn't there a Nobel prize in Mathematics?
While I have heard speculative answers to this question, I do not know one which can be supported. Is there any information explaining why Nobel did not chose to include this topic? Has there even been a serious attempt within the committee to add…
kaine
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13
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1 answer
Was there a period of doubt in the history of the Higgs mechanism?
As the LHC begins its second run this year, the physics community seems to be significantly split between those who are confident that SUSY exists and those who believe it doesn't, given its failure to show up at the LEP, Tevatron and LHC during run…
Larry Harson
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13
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Question on "What St. Augustine didn't say about mathematicians"
In the note "What St. Augustine didn't say about mathematicians" (which appeared sometime in 1991 in the pages of the Pi Mu Epsilon Journal), R. P. Boas, Jr. mentioned, among other things, that in the days of Augustine of Hippo the word…
José Hdz. Stgo.
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13
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Grassmann's "forms"
In Grassmann's famous article Ausdehnungslehre from 1844 (the one where he introduces what has come to be famous as Grassmann algebra) he uses the termionology "form" in place of, as he explains in his introduction, "quantity" or really "magnitude"…
Urs Schreiber
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13
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2 answers
Who was first to explain intuitively the inverse square law of gravity?
The surface area of a sphere is $4\pi r^2$ and when you increase the distance to a point charge the force diminishes like the $r^{-2}$. Who was the first person to realize this?
Ray Kay
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13
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Did Walter Pitts refuse to allow his name to be made publicly available?
I read on the Wikipedia page on Walter Pitts that :
Pitts was also described as an eccentric, refusing to allow his name
to be made publicly available. He refused all offers of advanced
degrees or official positions at MIT as he would have to…
Franck Dernoncourt
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13
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7 answers
Apparently different objects discovered to be the same
To make it more formal, I am looking for striking historical examples of objects or concepts that were well known in a field and perceived as different, but later discovered to be the same. I am interested in how they happen and what impact they…
Conifold
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13
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1 answer
Who blocked publication of "Mathematics in USSR. 1958-1967"?
A while ago, in USSR there were published two very voluminous collections entitled
"Mathematics in USSR for 30 years. 1917-1947" and
"Mathematics in USSR for 40 years. 1917-1957". These collections featured
surveys for various fields of…
Pasha Zusmanovich
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13
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5 answers
Great battles in the history of mathematics
Could someone list me the most important battles between mathematicians which happened in history, especially such that strong emotions played role in that time?
Perhaps the most known one is the battle between supporters of Newton and Leibniz on…
Widawensen
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