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Is the symbol for set membership $\in$ derived from greek letter $\epsilon$?
Title self explains: Is the symbol for set membership $\in$ derived from greek letter $\epsilon$? What is their historical relationship? Obviously the letter must be older, since greek alphabet is extremely old.
Paul Halmos Naive Set theory, page…
Santropedro
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How did people explain color before the splitting of white light was discovered?
We know that a body is red because it absorbs (visible) light of all wavelengths except that for the red. But before Newton showed that white light was actually made up of seven colors how did people explain a body being red in color?
Raghav
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Did the ancient Chinese know the earth is a sphere?
The ancient Greeks knew this fact. How about the chinese? If not, when did they realize that the earth is a sphere? By themselves or from other people?
S. Kohn
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History of a result from Bézout
BÉZOUT'S THEOREM:
Let $F$ and $G$ be projective plane curves of degree $m$ and $n$ respectively. Assume $F$ and $G$ have no common component. Then
$\displaystyle\sum_{P}I(P,F\cap G)=mn$
$I(P,F\cap G)$ is the intersection number of $F$ and $G$ at…
Yesid
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Did Cauchy forget or lose mathematical papers aside from Abel's and Galois's?
Augustin-Louis Cauchy was a prolific writer, his writings range widely in mathematics and mathematical physics. As a professor at École Polytechnique he came in contact and reviewed Abel's and Galois' early mathematical papers.
Due to his busy work…
Ziezi
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Was the "polynomial remainder theorem" known before polynomial long division was discovered?
Nowadays we can easily prove the following fact using polynomial long division:
If $a$ is a root of the polynomial $f$, then there exists a polynomial $g$ such that $f(x) = (x - a)g(x)$.
I can't imagine how to prove this without polynomial long…
Jack M
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Who was the first to prove the mean value theorem?
Who was the first to prove the mean value theorem, i.e., the existence of an intermediate point where the slope equals the average slope over the interval?
Mikhail Katz
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Euler's first proof of $e^{ix}=\cos(x)+i\sin(x)$
What was Euler's first proof of his famous formula?
In Euler's book on complex functions he used the following proof. But was this his first proof?
Euler starts with writing down De Moivre's Formula (can be proven by simple induction using some…
MrYouMath
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Did Turing know of Babbage's work?
Did Turing have any knowledge of Babbage's work? Is it known if he ever mentioned Babbage?
cuihtlauac
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What does Lagrange mean in this passage from Reflexions sur la résolution?
I'm having difficulty with section 6 of Lagrange's Réfléxions sur la résolution algébrique des équations. That's page 11 of the paper, 215 of his Oeuvres. Annoyingly, this is one of the most critical points of the paper, since it's where he mentions…
Jack M
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How much did scholasticism contribute to logic and mathematics?
I occasionally encounter mentions suggesting that late middle ages weren't as barren intellectually as commonly believed. For example, Occam and Scotus are credited with developing modal and temporal logic. Occam apparently came up with a theory…
Conifold
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Why didn't Einstein's Nobel Prize mention relativity theory?
It seems Einstein's most original contribution to physics was General Relativity Theory, as Lorentz and Poincaré already laid the foundations of Special Relativity. So, why didn't his 1921 Nobel Prize mention Special or General Relativity Theory at…
Geremia
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When was the earliest use of log-log plots to demonstrate power-law behavior?
After reading this answer and writing this comment, I decided to ask this question: When and where was the earliest known use of a log-log plot to demonstrate power-law behavior?
uhoh
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Did Isaac Newton burn Robert Hooke's picture?
A well-known TV series hinted some time ago that Isaac Newton burnt the only known picture of Robert Hooke.
Is it true?
rnrneverdies
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Who pitched in the theory of Hollow Earth?
Initially our ancestors believed of Earth as a flat place. Then after scientific discussions and experiments over a period of time, it was established that our Earth is round.
But, there exists one more theory that stats that the earth is Hollow…
Amit Tyagi
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