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1500 questions
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Is there any evidence De Morgan abandoned probability theory due to it being "too tricky/non-intuitive/difficult"?
During a brief conversation in Ten Fold, whuber pointed out:
I recall reading long ago that Augustus DeMorgan abandoned probability theory after much study, finding it too tricky/non-intuitive/difficult; but I have been unable to find an…
User1865345
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Entry 97 in Gauss's diary and the status of "lunar parallax" in the late 18th century
Pp. 539-542 of volume 10-1 of Gauss's werke include entry 97 in Gauss's diary:
I have found new exact formulas for the parallax of the Moon.
as well as the formulas themselves (which were rather found in a different place than Gauss's diary) and…
user2554
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History of group actions as their own structures
I'm interested in when (and how) the modern idea of a group action developed and how group actions became their own algebraic structures.
As far as I can tell in the 19th century group actions were much more implicit than they are today and were…
paidresolution
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7
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Fibonacci and straightedge and compass constructions
In "Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times" Morris Kline claims (on page 209) that Leonardo da Pisa (Fibonacci) "showed that the roots of $x^3+2x^2+10x=20$ are not constructible with straightedge and compass". I'd be interested to know…
Frunobulax
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Old unsolved questions in mathematics
John Stillwell, in his textbook on arithmetic cites Erdos:
As the great
Hungarian problem-solver Paul Erdos liked to point out, if you can
think of an open problem that is more than 200 years old, then it is
probably a problem in number…
Alexandre Eremenko
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7
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Who were the attendees to the SGA3 seminar?
Here is a photograph of the audience of SGA3 (as noted by Mateo Carmona).
Other photographs may be viewed from the homepage: https://agrothendieck.github.io/
Grothendieck is facing the audience. I recognise Dieudonne at the left in the front row,…
Nemo
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7
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When was the geometric structure of a water molecule discovered?
How and when was water the structure of a water molecule (specifically the angles) discovered?
Was it discovered by using a specific type of spectroscopy?
I know you can derive these angles theoretically, but I'm interested in their experimental…
Dan Barzilay
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7
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3 answers
Claims that fully formal proofs are impossible to write down
It is sometimes asserted that human-readable mathematical proofs that we construct and publish are just informal approximations to the gold standard, which is a completely formal proof in a formal language. The formal proof is supposed to be the…
Timothy Chow
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What is the mysterious expression mentioned by Hadamard that Riemann derived properties of zeta function from?
In the Chapter 7 epigraph in Stein and Shakarchi's Complex Analysis, there is a quote, apparently from Hadamard in 1945, saying
He proved some important properties of that function, but enunciated two or three as important ones without giving the…
D.R
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7
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2 answers
Did Feynman win the Putnam by a "large margin"?
From James Gleick's Genius: the life and science of Richard Feynman:
One of Feynman’s fraternity brothers was surprised to see him return home while the examination was still going on. Feynman learned later that the scorers had been astounded by…
theicfire
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7
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Why is it said that Marie Curie died due to her work but the same isn't said for Fermi?
I learnt in school that Marie Curie died from her work at 66 years. On the other hand, Enrico Fermi, who also handled a lot of radioactive substances died of stomach cancer at the age of just 53. It is highly likely that his work also was the cause…
Rohit Pandey
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7
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2 answers
First Use of the Short Exact Sequence
A question I've been curious about for a long period of time and tried to find the answer to myself a number of times (but apparently never been able to figure out just the right thing to type into Google to make the search engine give me the right…
StormyTeacup
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7
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1 answer
Did Ibn Al-Haytham believe that the Moon reflects sunlight or that it is self-luminous?
There are at least two articles about Ibn Al-Haytham in Encyclopedia First and Second
Both these articles have one major difference that is according to the First article:
The Light of the Stars (III 48). This argues that all stars and planets,…
Abhishek Yadav
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7
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What are some famous mathematicians that disappeared?
In physics there is this famous history facts about Ettore Majorana, brilliant student of Enrico Fermi that predicted the neutron and developed the idea of Majorana fermions, that suddenly disappeared. Are there similar disappearance stories in the…
Mauricio
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7
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Did Bacon analogize planets to holes in the head to explain why their number was (believed to be) seven?
I'm looking for a source (of which I've only ever read a quote) discussing the then seven known planets. In particular, I'm looking for the part where the author explains why that number seven makes sense with reference to (I think a Christian) God.…
tkp
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