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1500 questions
6
votes
1 answer
When were polynomial equations first factored?
The question pretty much says it all, though I have a specific example in mind. In the mid-1500s while working on his Ars Magna Cardano asked Tartaglia to solve the cubic $x^3=9x+10$. Using Tartaglia's formula results in having to take the square…
Brant
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6
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7 answers
Pop-sci books that were publicly influential but based on weak science
(I hope this is on-topic on this site)
I am wondering what are some of the best examples of popular-science books that had large influence in public, but was based on weak science?
By "large influence in public" I mean that the book's claims became…
Eff
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6
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Why did Euclid define "a unit" instead of "the unit"?
I know Euclid's Definition VII.1 of a unit only from English and German translations:
A unit is (that) according to which each existing (thing) is said (to
be) one. [translation by Fitzpatrick]
A unit is that by virtue of which each of the things…
Hans-Peter Stricker
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6
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1 answer
Meaning of passages by Gauss on the "convergence of expansions (in infinite series) of the (elliptical) equation of the center"?
Yesterday I took my time to look again into Schlesinger's essay on Gauss's contributions to analysis, and I found something new I didn't know about (so it caught my eye) in the last subsection of the chapter "The posthumous treatise on the agM…
user2554
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6
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2 answers
Does anybody know the history of how Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet came up with the “nowhere continuous” Dirichlet function?
So I am writing a research paper on the properties of the Dirichlet function (the function with 1 if x is rational and 0 if x is irrational), and I wanted to include some historical background on how Dirichlet came up with this function. However, I…
serendipity456
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6
votes
1 answer
On what basis did Kennedy think that humans could land on the moon so quickly?
In September 1962 a nice young man ordered the United States to commit to landing on the moon in eight years. Even though none of the technologies, methods, or materials for doing so existed at the time.
On what basis did Kennedy think that this was…
dotancohen
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6
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2 answers
Grand Prix in Mathematics of the French Academy of Sciences
I'm interested in the mathematical problems proposed for the grand-prix
of the French Academy Of Sciences, from its beginnigs in 1666 to the present.
Are there any books or articles with the precise problem statements & the winners?
exp8j
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6
votes
1 answer
When and why was inversive geometry created/studied?
I have been revisiting math from my highschool through undergrad. I picked Courant’s excellent What is Mathematics?
The flow is well so far. However, in one of the chapters he introduces inversion - mostly w.r.t. the circle. This seemed a bit abrupt…
PhD
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6
votes
2 answers
What is the origin of "normal" in normal coordinates and normal modes?
I am trying to understand why vibrational modes of polyatomic molecules are called "normal" mode of vibrations and with corresponding normal coordinates. What is the origin of the term normal here? I am sure this term must have been borrowed from…
AChem
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6
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1 answer
Origin of Compactness
According to Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavel_Urysohn, Urysohn and Alexandrov first formulated the modern definition of compactness. In which paper did they do this? Is there an English translation? If so, where can I find it?
user109871
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6
votes
2 answers
When and why did people stopped using "natural philosophy" term and started using "science"?
Previously what is called now "natural sciences" was called "natural philosophy". I'm interested in details, what was so wrong with the name "philosophy" so the name "science" became preferred?
rus9384
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6
votes
4 answers
Why statistical moments are called moments?
According to the Jeff Miller's Earliest Known Uses of the Words of Mathematics "Moment was taken into Statistics from Mechanics by Karl Pearson when he treated the frequency-curve (or observation curve) as the sheet enclosed by the curve and the…
AChem
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6
votes
1 answer
When, and by whom was the Schwarzschild metric first taken to be valid for all radii greater than zero?
The metric was originally defined to be valid only from the surface of a black hole outward but somewhere along the line it was extended inward to include the region under the event horizon.
This extension of the metric was, of course, what gave us…
dcgeorge
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6
votes
1 answer
Etymology of Some Terms Used in Ratio and Proportion in Old Algebra Textbooks
In older algebra textbooks for high school (mainly 19th century) four properties of ratio and proportions were used. The properties were Invertendo, Alternendo, Componendo, and Dividendo. This terminology has vanished in most textbooks.
I could…
AChem
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6
votes
1 answer
Law of the Unconscious Statistician - history of the term?
The "Law of the Unconscious Statistician" states that, for a random variable $X$ with density $f_X(x)$ and a function of it $h(X)$ we have that
$$E[h(X)] = \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} f_X(x)h(x) dx$$
In words, we do not need to obtain the distribution…
Alecos Papadopoulos
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