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Why did Richard Bellman, creator of dynamic programing say: 1950s were not good years for maths?
Richard Bellman said :
"The 1950s were not good years for mathematical research. We had a
very interesting gentleman in Washington named Wilson. He was
Secretary of Defense, and he actually had a pathological fear and
hatred of the word…
NIN
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Did Hardy and Ramanujan miscalculate these values?
When I read Dickson's History Of The Theory Of Numbers Vol-2, I found that there seems to be a mistake in the approximation of partition numbers p(200). For this reason, I found the original text according to the literature. In the original text,…
D.Matthew
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6
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Did Archimedes view fractions as "numbers"?
For quite some time I had the wrong impression that classical Greek mathematicians didn't use fractions. (I don't remember where I had this from.) But I recently looked into Heath's book about Archimedes and apparently Archimedes used fractions…
Frunobulax
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Are there commented English translations of Pappus's works on conics?
I'm investigating the conics in ancient Greece, I have the works of Apollonius, Diocles and Euclid, written with great commentary (both explaining the math and the historical context) that make them very readable and enjoyable.
I have not had that…
Joaquin Brandan
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6
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1 answer
Einstein: 'SR is a theory of invariants, not relativity' -- source?
It is occasionally remarked that Einstein was unhappy that SR became referred to as a ‘theory of relativity’, when in his eyes it was, much more importantly, a theory of invariants (Invariantentheorie). I'm trying to find a quotable source for…
Norman Gray
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6
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What mathematical problems did the Sicilians need Arab help with in 1229? Did the Arabs solve these problems?
An incident in the negotations of the Sixth Crusade is described as Frederick II asking help from Arab scholars with some mathematical problems:
... and the sultan graciously allowed Frederick to submit a list of difficult mathematical problems for…
gktscrk
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6
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When was the function 1 + cos(x), aka the vercosine, given a name?
Nowadays, when one searches for little-known trigonometric functions, one usually finds a list containing the versine, coversine, vercosine, and covercosine. When using this list, $1+\cos(x)$ is given the name vercosine. However, I have not found…
user743012
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6
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Origin of the Fourier transform (1878)
I located Joseph Fourier's book, Analytical Theory of Heat (1878), but at first glance it looks like it is all about heat. What did Fourier call the Fourier transform? When did he first use it?
Christina Daniel
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6
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Were $\sigma$-algebras defined for probability?
If you want a crash course in $\sigma$-algebras and probability spaces, you should absolutely read this amazing answer by @Sycorax on Cross Validated. Sycorax says something in particular though that jumps out at me:
The three requirements of a…
gen-ℤ ready to perish
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Natura non facit saltus (nature does not make jumps), who said that?
The sentence is Latin for nature doesn't make jumps. It refers to the fact that, in most physical processes, quantities vary continuously.
The principle was used by Leibniz, Kant and Darwin among others.
The best source I found for this sentence,…
lcv
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6
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1 answer
Were epicycloids from astronomy acceptable curves in Greek geometry?
My simplified historical understanding is as follows. Euclidean geometry accepted a limited number of geometrical objects (straight-edge and compass constructions, conics). Descartes' Géométrie expanded the geometrical universe and introduced…
sqrt_eric
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6
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How did Jenner and his contemporaries understand vaccination before germ theory of disease?
Edward Jenner was a British doctor in the 18th century who in 1798 developed "vaccination," that is exposing humans to cow pox in order to prevent them from acquiring small pox. Vaccination was quickly taken up and Jenner seen as a hero. Vaccination…
seeker_after_truth
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6
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How did cartographers of past centuries determine latitude and longitude?
When were the concepts of latitude and longitude first introduced? How did cartographers determine them?
Leandro Caniglia
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Who superseded Peano's dot notation in symbolic logic and when?
Bertrand Russel gave an exhaustive treatment of creating mathematics from logic in Principia Mathematica (1910-1913), using the logical notation created by Frege and Peano. As monumental as this is, I find it difficult to read, having learned logic…
Mitch
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6
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Was Von Neumann and Birkhoff's original formulation of Quantum Logic related with projective geometry?
I was looking at how did von Neumann and Birkhoff formulate their Quantum Logic formalism back in 1936. To solve some questions, I contacted via email a philosopher who studied this topic.
I thought that Von Neumann and Birkhoff's original…
vengaq
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