Most Popular
1500 questions
7
votes
2 answers
How scientifically valid were Galileo's heliocentric arguments?
As far as I know, while Galileo's hypothesis about the tides was wrong, his discovery of the phases of Venus while passing the sun should have been sufficient to leave the geocentric crystal spheres shattered - figuratively and literally.
But in the…
elias_d
- 173
- 4
7
votes
2 answers
When did architects first become aware of the usefulness of the catenary arch?
The Wikipedia-entry for catenaries lists Robert Hooke as the first to study catenaries mathematically, in the 1670s. However, the dome of the Florence Cathedral, completed structurally in 1436, follows a catenary arch, which its builder seems to…
Bobson Dugnutt
- 171
- 4
7
votes
1 answer
How were variables used and understood in (particularly) 19th century maths?
Context: I have been thinking about Frege's Begriffsschrift, where he introduces a version of what we now think of as the standard quantifier/variable notation. Philosophers who write on Frege tend to present this as a rather stunning advance in…
Peter Smith
- 337
- 1
- 4
7
votes
2 answers
Historical Instances of Set Theory
Context: I've been reading a lot about Set Theory lately, and how it suddenly sprung onto the mathematical scene in the late 1800's, thanks largely to Cantor. But it seems strange to me that no one had ever done anything similar to it before, so I…
Michael Blakeman
- 181
- 4
7
votes
2 answers
Who first proved that $f_{xy} = f_{yx}$?
Who first proved the interchangeability of partial derivatives? I never see any reference in textbooks. This is not a trivial result.
poisson
- 407
- 2
- 5
7
votes
5 answers
Why did it take an army of physicists, working on a huge complex, so long to produce a working nuclear device, while it seems so easy in theory?
I think most of us know about the construction of the first atomic bomb at Los Alamos, with Robert Oppenheimer (who said he became "The destroyer of worlds", which goes to show he regretted his participation; nevertheless he did participate) in…
Deschele Schilder
- 1
- 8
- 14
7
votes
2 answers
What mathematician or scientist has published the most peer-reviewed articles on chess problems?
This question involves not only those provided by the link, but also those "chess-themed" mathematics and computer science problems which are not included in the link. Who has published the most peer-reviewed articles on this topic amongst…
Paul Burchett
- 549
- 3
- 13
7
votes
2 answers
How much do Marx's theories of sociology influence modern Western sociology?
From what little I know of sociology, Karl Marx is considered one of the fathers of sociology, along with Emile Durkheim and Max Weber. Marx is most known for his political views, which don't have a lot of support in current Western thought; are his…
DylanSp
- 221
- 1
- 3
7
votes
1 answer
Historical occurrences of mathematicians substituting terms for $x$ in the denominator of $\mathrm{d}y/\mathrm{d}x$?
This answer, to a question on teaching the chain rule, suggests writing something like this
$$
\frac{\mathrm{d}\, \mathrm{e}^\sqrt{s}}{\mathrm{d}\,s}=\frac{\mathrm{d}…
Michael Bächtold
- 1,775
- 14
- 24
7
votes
2 answers
When $1$ wasn't really a number in Greece
I'm reading "Professor Stewart's Incredible Numbers," by Ian Stewart and in there it is claimed that
In early Greece, the list of numbers started $2, 3, 4,$ and so on: $1$ was special, not "really" a number. Later, when this convention started to…
Shaun
- 193
- 6
7
votes
0 answers
F. Schoblik's announced ''ausführliche Darstellung": a lost wrong proof of the Four Color Theorem?
In (the AMS Chelsea Publishing version of) what is perhaps the first genuine textbook on graph theory ever, Dénes Kőnig on p. 28 gives the illustration
and the footnote
which when translated says
Since the graph in Fig. 14 can be drawn in the…
Peter Heinig
- 690
- 3
- 10
7
votes
1 answer
How was Mendel's work rediscovered after being forgotten for 45 years?
According to Melanie Mitchell's book, Complexity: A Guided Tour [PDF], Mendel's model
[...] was published in a rather obscure journal and was not appreciated as being of great importance until 1900, after which several scientists had obtained…
Ooker
- 1,198
- 7
- 24
7
votes
1 answer
What is the name of this numeral system?
In a XVth century french manuscript on arithmetic and astrology, there is a description of a numeral system as follows (it starts here in the manuscript).
Numbers between 1 and 9 are depicted by a vertical bar and a set of small bars on the…
Thomas Sauvaget
- 355
- 1
- 8
7
votes
1 answer
How did people realize they could do logic with electronics?
How did people realize they could do logic with electronics? Are there anecdotes of the first realizations? I'm wondering about the first "eureka" moments.
Kinnard Hockenhull
7
votes
1 answer
How did the 'Poincaré patches' get their name?
De Sitter space and Anti de Sitter space are two of the most important solutions to the Einstein field equations. One famous method to obtain these spacetimes is to consider a $N$-dimensional hypersurface in $N+1$-dimensional Minkowski space. The…
Danu
- 3,852
- 2
- 29
- 53