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Why is Mendeleev credited with the discovery of the periodic table much more often than Meyer?
The question "Why do we learn little about Mendeleev when compared to other science figures?" let me ask: Why do we learn next to nothing about Julius Lothar Meyer (1830-1895) who in parallel to Mendeleev, found the periodic system?
Franz Kurz
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What was the historical importance of the discovery of high-$T_c$ superconductors?
I remember very well from my (only) class in solid state physics how enthusiastically the professor recounted the discovery of high-$T_c$ superconductors. In one particularly vivid anecdote, he recounted how several hundreds of physicists were…
Danu
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6
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What exactly did Poincaré mean by 'simply connected'?
I've been reading John Stillwell's translation of the famous Analysis Situs and have become confused about the exact meaning of 'simply connected' in Poincaré's language. On page 7 (in the introduction), Stillwell claims Poincaré defines it, in…
Pedro
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When did people realize that the determinant of a matrix is actually the volume of a parallelepiped?
As is well known, the Hadamard inequality is trivial from this point of view. But the Hadamard inequality is discovered so late.
pie
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6
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Why does the "Principle Of Permanence" have two different definitions?
This question is a sub-question of previous question on MSE. I feel that on this website I have better chances of knowing more things.
For quite some time now, I have been searching about the "Principle of permanence". Mainly it is because of George…
user31782
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What insight of Watson and Crick was missed by Franklin?
Their papers were published on the same issue of Nature back to back. Moreover, helix was also mentioned in Franklin's paper. So, what important insight or contribution of Watson and Crick was missed by Franklin?
J.Bates
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6
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Grothendieck and the Gaussian integral
This article goes something like this:
In a discussion with Grothendieck, Messing mentioned the formula expressing the integral of $\exp(-x^2)$ in terms of $\pi$, which is proved in every calculus course. Not only did Grothendieck not know the…
Alenstein
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Notational change with Integrals
A little over 50 years ago I took my first Calculus class and learned the conventional form of an integral as:
$$
\int f(x)\,\, \textrm{d}x
$$
That is, the integral sign (definite or indefinite) followed by the function being integrated followed by…
K7PEH
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What did the ratio of two magnitudes mean to ancient Greek mathematicians?
My understanding is that magnitudes to ancient Greeks meant the actual line segments and plane regions (not the size of the line segment or the area of the plane region), the concept of ratio was then used to talk about the 'size' of different…
abk
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6
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Euler's works after blindness
There are many sources which say that Euler produced, on average, one mathematical paper every week in the year $1775$. Some even say he produced almost half his total works despite the total blindness.
I can't seem to find much works after $1770$,…
kingW3
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6
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Fraenkel's appointment at Göttingen
Abraham Fraenkel grandpère writes on page 127 of his book recently translated into English:
My professional career began in March 1919 with... an invitation to Göttingen to Privy Counselor Felix Klein, almost 70 years of age, but still active as…
Mikhail Katz
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Why do we write $E=mc^2$ and not $E=c^2 m$?
My question goes from Phys.SE where people advised me to ask my question here.
I always learn in maths and physics when something is a constant in an equation we have to put it before which varies. Some days ago I just thought about it.
When you…
ParaH2
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Did Gauss see the analogy between number-theoretic concepts and knots?
According to the book "Models and Inferences in Science", p.156 - "the idea of a number-theoretic approach to knots goes to Gauss (1798), who used the analogy between primes and knots, and it was put forward by Schubert (1949) and Mazur (1973)".…
user2554
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Are there any famous mathematicians who did regular physical workouts?
Because regular physical exercise is in theory linked to better brain function and is also recommended in another question here on stack exchange, I wonder if there are any famous mathematicians who reputedly adhered to a strict exercise routine.
I…
CuriousIndeed
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History of XY model - Plane Rotator model
I would like to find out more about the history of the XY model. While for the Ising and Potts model it is easy to find information, it's quite difficult for me to understand when and where the XY model (or the plane rotator model) was first…
fdesmond
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