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Have the results from Computational Physics disprove any physics theory?
We are familiar with the instances when experimental results disproved physics theories, such as the Michelson-Morley experiment.
What about computational physics results? To date, is there any computational physics simulation that cast a strong…
Graviton
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Discovery of Sine and Cosine
Discovery of Sine and Cosine of an angle, the intuition behind it is always intriguing. Apart from "that is the way they were defined", could someone explain how the discovery happened? I have read "What is Mathematics?" by R. Courant and related…
RSH
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Who said that essentially everything in theoretical physics had already been discovered?
There is an anecdote that appears in various popular books on physics, about a physics professor who advised a student of his not to pursue a career in physics since almost all that was to be discovered had been discovered, or something to that…
K7PEH
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Who was the first to use the phrase "the standard model" of something?
I was doing some reading on stellar structure, and I noticed the phrase "the standard solar model" used to describe the structure of the Sun, and stars in general. It reminded me of the Standard Model of particle physics. Also, the $\Lambda$-CDM…
HDE 226868
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On the history of population dynamics of territorial species
I am interested in the historical priority in population biology, essays or monographs, discussing the concept of territoriality prior to 1950.
What is it? In the early 18th century discussions of mortality due to conflict or starvation resulting…
Gottfried William
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Contemporary reactions to the rise of axiomatization in the 19th/20th centuries
Starting somewhere in the 19th century, mathematics turned from the study of concrete objects to the study of objects satisfying enough properties to lead to interesting theorems. For example:
From permutation groups and groups of geometrical…
Jack M
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Why is the Heaviside step function named after Heaviside?
The Heaviside step function is usually defined as
$$
\theta(x)=\left\{\begin{array}{ll}0&\text{if }x<0\\\tfrac12&\text{if }x=0\\1&\text{if }x>0.\\\end{array}\right.
$$
It is remarkably simple and doesn't take a lot of work to define, though if used…
Emilio Pisanty
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Did geometric patterns in nature suggest the early notions of proportion and ratios?
I'm very interested to learn about historical phenomenology of proportion and ratios, i.e. I want to know how and why people in the past introduced these concepts. As far as I understand symmetric objects or patterns in geometric figures found in…
Shahed al mamun
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Mathematical counterintelligence at Bletchley during World War 2
Popular works of fiction claim that after breaking the Enigma in Bletchley, some sophisticated mathematics or statistical techniques were used to hide this fact of breaking (not necessarily by the same people). This may have included at looking at…
puslet88
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Who really invented the integration symbol?
Most of the sources online say that Leibniz invented the sign. There's also this answer on this site which says so.
That is fine. But recently when I was watching Cosmos, I noticed this:
See the integration sign on the wall? That's Newton's house.…
Yashbhatt
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What have we learned from Einstein's unsuccessful dream of unifying electromagnetism and gravity?
In the wiki page about unsuccessful investigations of Einstein, there is only one sentence describe his unsuccessful of unifying general relativity with electromagnetism:
Einstein spent many years pursuing a unified field theory, and published…
Ooker
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History of the inverse matrix
I know the definition and the procedure to calculate the inverse of a matrix, but I want to know the history of starting the idea of an inverse matrix. mathematicians must have faced a real life situation which compelled them to invent the inverse…
user 31466
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Did Galileo bet money on the ship experiment?
Galileo's writings describe two experiments involving ships. These are summarized in the Wikipedia article Galileo's ship. (A lot of the text in the article is mine, and if there are things I'm misunderstanding, then they probably appear in the…
user466
9
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How far did Nazi Germany get in researching the "sun gun?"
Nazi Germany tried to win World War II by creating "wonder weapons." They actually produced the V-2 Missiles capable of reaching England, and tried, but failed, to develop the atomic bomb.
One of the weapons on the drawing board was the Sun gun. It…
Tom Au
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Did Newton say: "If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been due more to patient attention, than to any other talent"?
I came across the above quote, and found it quite interesting. However, I struggled to find an actual source. Did Newton truly say this?
bzm3r
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