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Story of Grothendieck's Prime Number
There is a story about Alexander Grothendieck and the "Grothendieck Prime" 57, which goes roughly as follows (cf. this wikipedia article):
In a mathematical conversation, someone suggested to Grothendieck
that they should consider a particular…
Moishe Kohan
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What are some scientific breakthroughs that have been done during jail time?
I am looking for examples of scientific breakthroughs that have been made within the confines of a prison cell.
Franck Dernoncourt
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33
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Why did the ancient Greeks originally become interested in conic sections?
How much is known, or can be conjectured, about why the Greeks originally became interested in the somewhat arbitrary construction of intersecting a plane with a cone? The folklore that I've heard is that conics were forgotten until they turned out…
Jack M
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32
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Was object oriented programming influenced by the mathematical category theory?
Object oriented programming (OOP) is a programming model where code and data are encapsulated into units called objects that behave semi-autonomously. Interaction between objects is arranged through subroutines called methods that are object…
Conifold
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32
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Why is American and French notation different for open intervals (x, y) vs. ]x, y[?
The Americans and the French use a different notation for open intervals: The Americans use (x, y) while the French use ]x, y[. How did this notational divergence appear?
Franck Dernoncourt
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32
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Has physics ever given a physical significance to a mathematically abstract idea?
Consider a fundamental concept in maths that was created to 'solve' a problem that simply couldn't be solved by any other approach (or maybe for some other reason). Now let's assume that this concept made no sense to the contemporary mathematicians…
Adil Mohammed
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10 answers
How did people make things perfectly straight?
Constructing houses, telescopes, and most other important projects requires shaping pieces to precise size, at perfect right angles, or to have flat surfaces. People today have all kinds of ways of accomplishing similar precision, but only because…
Addem
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How did Napier come to invent logarithms?
What was Napier's original logic, leading to his invention of logarithms?
In other words, how did Napier, using the mathematics that was available at that time, derive them?
AbdElWadoud
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Who first defined the "equal-delta" or "delta over equal" ($\triangleq$) symbol?
The symbol $\triangleq$ is sometimes used in mathematics (and physics) for a definition. It is instantiated for instance in the Unicode Character 'DELTA EQUAL TO' (U+225C).
The notation $t \triangleq m$ (generally) means: "$t$ is defined to be $m$"…
Laurent Duval
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Current ways of thinking in the History of Mathematics
As a research mathematician, working in number theory, who is interested in the history of his own field, I have done some reading in the History of Mathematics, particularly that of Ancient Greek and Hellenistic mathematics. When I compare the way…
R.P.
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Is the Scientific Method uniquely Western?
I'm studying High School Science teaching in Australia. In our Science curriculum there are "cross-curriculum" priorities "Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures" and "Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia". (see…
pdmclean
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What did the Soviets do with German scientists after WWII?
The U.S. picked up a whole bunch of German scientists after World War II in Operation Paperclip. One of the most notable was Wernher von Braun, who jump-started the American space program.
The Soviet Union also got some scientists, although not…
HDE 226868
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Was fake/rigged data common prior to the 20th century?
In one of the lab courses I took as an undergraduate, I remember that the professor noted while discussing some statistical test (almost certainly chi-squared) that one could use it to show that a lot of early scientists (prior to the development of…
Logan M
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Was evolution ever discussed (perhaps using different terms) prior to Darwin?
It's common knowledge that Darwin is considered the father of evolution, but even humans have been breeding animals (and probably themselves) selectively for specific traits for thousands of years. How much of the theory of evolution actually…
StackExchange What The Heck
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What were the dominant non-atomic theories of matter in the 19th century?
From what I have read, the atomic theory of matter was cemented by a 1905 paper by Einstein in which he explained the erratic motion of a bit of pollen suspended in water using the assumption that water is made of tiny molecules. The question of…
Paul Siegel
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