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1500 questions
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What is the history of moment generating functions, and the more general characteristic functions?
Moment generating functions provide an alternative specification for a probability distribution function (pdf), often making it very convenient to calculate expectations, variances, etc. of said pdf.
A moment generating function is defined…
bzm3r
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8
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When was the short notation for large numbers first introduced and why?
While the long notation or long scale uses multiples of millions to denominate larger numbers (e.g., 10^12 being a billion, a million of millions, thus bi-llion), the short notation (the standard in the US and UK) uses multiples of thousands (e.g.,…
arkaia
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8
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Where did Master equations come from, and why are there so many of them?
The Wikipedia article about the Master equations describes pretty well how many there are and what kind of equations are called "Master equations".
Does anyone know where the term originates, why there are so many, and what is so masterful about…
Wolpertinger
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8
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Was the idea of encoding meta-mathematics into arithmetic in the air when Gödel proved incompleteness theorems?
I mean, was there anyone who tried (before Gödel) to encode meta-mathematics? Or, was the idea of constructing formal sentences which informally refer to itself completely new when Gödel introduced his work? Or were there some work before which…
FNH
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8
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The relationship between Euler and Lagrange
Reading the biographies of Lagrange and Euler by all accounts they were on good terms and correspondence. However it is well known that Lagrange would not accept a position at the Berlin Academy of sciences because
it is not suitable while Euler is…
AngusTheMan
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8
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3 answers
What is the history of the energy concept and its measurement?
Could someone please explain how the concept of energy was originally conceived and how it evolved over time to our current understanding of it? Also how did people come about various ways of measuring, mathematically expressing and precisely…
SaitamaSensei
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8
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The first of Fermat's last theorem
A simple question(s):
When and by who was Fermat's famous conjecture (proved by Wiles et al.) called his "last theorem"? Was the original motivation the same as is given nowadays, that this would be the last-proved of his theorems?
It is interesting…
plm
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8
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Did Darwin ever express his views on eugenics?
Although Darwin died a year before the term "eugenics" was coined by his cousin, Francis Galton, Galton had already been working on the idea of using selective breeding to improve humans genetically for many years.
Presumably, Darwin was aware of…
HDE 226868
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8
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Who discovered the singular cup product?
Cohomology is a stronger invariant than homology because it can be equipped with a ring structure. To be precise, if one starts with the singular cohomology groups $H^\bullet(-; R)$ with coefficients in a ring $R$, then there is a map $$H^n(X; R)…
Balarka Sen
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8
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How did Kepler infer three-dimensional positions from Tycho Brahe's data?
This has bugged me for some time.
Tycho Brahe's data on planetary observations, presumably, consisted of the direction in which a planet was observed at a given date and time, but not the distance to the planet. What techniques did Kepler use to add…
Emilio Pisanty
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8
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Who is the second person Kolmogorov supposedly thought possessed some kind of "higher intelligence"?
Vladimir Arnold wrote that Andrei Kolmogorov told him the names of the two mathematicians in conversation with whom he "feels the presence of higher intelligence". One of them is Israel Gelfand.
Who is the second one?
origaminal
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8
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5 answers
What is the history of the meanings behind the word "Geometric"?
I am trying to understand the uses of the word "Geometric" throughout mathematics. I suspect that there may be some historical reasons which would tie things together and help my understanding. Supposedly, "Geometric" means "of or relating to…
Greg Thatcher
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8
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Who is Joshua King?
I've read about a Lucasian Professor called Joshua King. From the Wiki page, he seems like a mysterious man to me
"Joshua King came to Cambridge from Hawkshead Grammar School. It was soon evident that the school had produced someone of importance.…
BigbearZzz
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8
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Counterclockwise vs. clockwise
It is common for mathematicians to use counterclockwise (ccw) as positive, and
clockwise (cw) as negative.
For example, trigonometric functions increase from $0^\circ$ along the positive $x$-axis (East)
to $90^\circ$ along the positive $y$-axis…
Joseph O'Rourke
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8
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Why is Sophie-Germain's Identity popular?
Sophie Germain's identity is only about factorising $a^4+4b^4$ as product of two squares.It's not quite difficult. So,why is it so popular?
Soham
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