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1500 questions
25
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What was Weil's reaction to Deligne's proof?
How did André Weil react when Pierre Deligne finally solved the most important and hardest of the Weil conjectures ?
Is there any written account on this ?
I guess Serre's and Grothendieck's (unfortunate) reaction are well-known, but I have never…
THC
25
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2 answers
Who discovered the covering homomorphism between SU(2) and SO(3)?
Who discovered this? It is quite nontrivial and very important in quantum mechanics.
John
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Why were geometers dissatisfied with the parallel postulate?
Euclid himself already treats it with gloves, it has an unusually precise formulation, and is not used in the first 28 propositions of the Elements. Why? Did he doubt it? It's not like Euclid was a formalist, in the very first proof of proposition…
Conifold
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Literary works authored by mathematicians
At a first glance, Mathematics and Literature look like two completely unrelated subjects.
I wonder whether there are examples of acclaimed mathematicians which wrote novels, poems, or other literary works not related to mathematics.
EDIT.…
Ludwig
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24
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1 answer
How was Einstein led to make a contact with Differential Geometry for his theory of General Relativity?
General Relativity was developed with Differential Geometry as the tool.
How was Einstein led to make a contact with Differential Geometry for his theory of General Relativity? Who suggested him to use Differential Geometry?
Display Name
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24
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What scientists and mathematicians were afraid to publish their findings?
Background
I am interested in scientists and mathematicians that were afraid to publish their findings during their lifetime, and to what degree such fears hinder scientific progress.
So far, I've identified three famous scientists that were afraid…
Max Muller
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24
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Euler: “A baby on his lap, a cat on his back — that’s how he wrote his immortal works” (origin?)
Euler was a non-confrontational and deeply religious person. He was kind and could get on well with anyone. He worked under any circumstances and in any environment: “A baby on his lap, a cat on his back — that’s how he wrote his immortal works,”…
Nikita Kalinin
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24
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How soon after or before the development of nuclear applications was waste disposal considered?
Nuclear applications—be it in the form of electricity production, weapon creation, etc.—inevitably involves radioactive waste.
When was it realized that there might be a need for a specialized waste disposal process? How does this date compare to…
BMS
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Who first considered the $f$ in $f(x)$ as an object in itself, and who decided to call it a function?
The question is in the title, but allow me to provide some background.
I’m aware that Leibniz introduced the word “function” into mathematics (around 1673) and that Johann Bernoulli or Euler introduced the notation $f(x)$ (sometimes between…
Michael Bächtold
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23
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What is the etymology behind sine, cosine, tangent, etc.?
I heard somewhere that it was actually a mistake in translation. What's the correct story?
user4795
23
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4 answers
Did ancient/medieval non-European cultures have a concept of energy? If so, what are the similarities and differences to the modern concept?
For example, do we find something related to the modern energy concept in Ancient China, Ancient India, or the Islamic Golden Age?
Among "similarities and differences", conservation is obviously important, as is convertibility and variety of…
Michael Weiss
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23
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Ancient Chinese numbering system
It has been said that the invention of zero was a great leap forward, not only in abstract understanding, but in the ability to introduce place value notation and do computations; computing using Roman numerals was notably clumsy.
However, the…
rogerl
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23
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2 answers
In what form does the field of metamathematics exist today?
I was rewriting the Wikipedia article for metamathematics, and it was very difficult to find any references after the 1930s. The most important works seem to have been Gödel's completeness and incompleteness theorem.
Is there a field of mathematics…
Brian Rushton
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23
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2 answers
When did it become possible to predict the time and place of solar eclipses?
That is, when did astronomy figure out how to predict when and where a solar eclipse will be visible?
It seems people noticed fairly early on that the Sun, Moon and Earth return to the same approximate relative positions periodically (~18 years and…
Semaphore
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23
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Hypothesis testing: Fisher vs. Popper vs. Bayes
I try to make my question short. I am familiar with Popper’s philosophy as well as with statistical hypothesis testing after Fisher and Neyman-Pearson. I am not so familiar with the Bayesian approach except that this methodology is defined by…
Stefan
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