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Has any 'difficult' proof ever been superseded by a 'simple' one?
Let's take an obvious example. I'm sure that amateur mathematicians (and some professionals) will continue to search for Fermat's 'marvellous proof' of his Last Theorem. This is despite the fact that Andrew Wiles has proved the assertion using much…
Ima Guest
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Is there any historical "evidence" maintaining that Euclid was a single person?
Bourbaki, for example, was the name of a set of mathematicians, rather than a single person, under which several books were published.
Out of curiosity, I wonder if there is any historical evidence that makes one maintain that the author of the…
Yes
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When was zero actually introduced in mathematics?
Children learn counting things, naturally like, 1, 2, 3, ... and so on. Because it seems obvious to them. But, zero is something we need to teach them about.
As far as my understanding goes zero was introduced after quite some time since the birth…
Amit Tyagi
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Historically, how did people define multiplication for negative numbers?
Which were the first mathematical developments to state that the product of two negative numbers is a positive number, and what was their justification for this choice? I am not interested in a modern explanation for why this choice is sensible, but…
Arthur Azevedo De Amorim
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How old is the peer-review process in scientific publishing?
Everything is in the title but just to expand on the question, I am wondering if there was any publication process similar to the peer-review process in the past (and when). If not, does it mean that anybody could widely release its results without…
Peabody
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What is the origin of the rubber sheet analogy?
I am trying to track down the first use of the 'bowling ball on a rubber sheet' analogy to explain spacetime curvature in general relativity. I have found a lot of secondary sources that give contradictory citations but no primary sources. ChatGPT…
Kerida
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Is it true that Albert Einstein was kicked out of high school due to his "peacefulness"?
In an interview I recently saw with Joseph Agassi he said that:
...The teachers that kicked him out asked that it be written in his [Einstein's] report card that they have no complaint against him. Usually they would kick a kid if he is bothersome,…
Amit
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Has there ever been a case where someone wished a theorem or important result wasn't named after them? Has it happened more than once?
The current answers to the Academia HNQ Should I ask for permission to name a mathematical theorem? include the following (small excerpts):
There is no need to ask permission, and mostly likely they will be happy to have the theorem referred to…
uhoh
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Why did angular momentum get the letter L
Note - this question was inspired by this questions on physics.SE.
Many (most) physical quantities are denoted with a single letter - latin or greek. For many, the letter chosen makes sense: $t$ for time, $m$ for mass, etc. Often the letter chosen…
Floris
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What cipher(s) did Isaac Newton use?
A number of sources including this one assert that Isaac Newton used encrypted messages to communicate some of his scientific discoveries, and as a way of establishing priority.
What cipher(s) did he use?
What was the ciphertext and what was the…
A E
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How did "publish or perish" become the scientific priority rule?
The modern standard is that "between two or more independent discoverers, the first to make formal publication is the legitimate winner", colorfully described as publish or perish. This was not always the case. In 16-th century it was common for…
Conifold
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Did Abraham De Moivre really predict his own death?
At the last point of his life, he noted that he slept 15 minutes extra every night then he calculated that he would die on the day that the extra 15 minutes a night accumulated to 24 hours. That day was November 27, 1754, the actual day of his…
UserX
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Grothendieck's approach to solving problems
Alexander Grothendieck is known to have revolutionized several areas of mathematics. His insights were very deep, original and revolutionary. Time after time he showed that he could see in ways that no one else could.
And that brings up the…
user3182
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To what degree did ancient Egyptians use Cement Chemistry
From a young age I have been taught that the stones used to create the great pyramids were mined. Concrete and cements were largely invented by the Romans/Greeks especially for use as mortar. More recently, I've heard other explanations.
Prof.…
kaine
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Books on the history of linear algebra
I'm quite desperate to understand the historical motivation and origin of all of the "geometrical" concepts of linear algebra, namely:
The concept of thinking of elements of $\mathbb R^n$ or some other vector space as points in a "space", and of…
Jack M
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