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Einstein's readings of popular sciences as a kid
“At the age of 12 to 16 I familiarized myself with the elements of mathematics together with the principles of differential and integral calculus. In doing so I had the good fortune of finding books which were not too particular in their logical…
copper
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Did Archimedes make use of a Pappus chain according to the Book of Lemmas?
My question is only about a certain hystorical gem. The purpose of this question is to explore how vast were Archimedes's contributions to geometry that are not connected to calculus (i.e calculation of areas and volumes of curved figures), i.e to…
user2554
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Classical physics - A timeline of Mechanics
As a chemist we never really use classical mechanics much instead favouring a quantum description of the world around us. I have been lectured plenty on the origins of quantum mechanics and how the early pioneers forged away to develop ultimately…
RedPen
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Was the Vigenère cipher broken many years before Kasiski?
The Vigenère cipher was broken by Kasiski in 1863 but I read novels and romans from older time, for example during the French Revolution where a student broke Vigenère cipher.
Is it likely that somebody have broken the code before Kasiski or is it…
user4698
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What is Hensel's lemma a lemma for?
Was Hensel's lemma originally used for proving some other theorem? Or is it meant to be a standalone result? Why is it a "lemma" and not a theorem?
user2084
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How could John Dalton hypothesised his atomic theory based on his experimental observations?
The key of this question is not simply stating the content of his theory, but telling what results or principles he had at that time and how could they lead to the theory. He was as such the first person to measure relative atomic weights.…
Kevin Kwok
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Origins and history of branched covering
During my research on branched coverings of the projective plane, I am interested to know the origins and history of branched coverings of the projective plane and the projective line, together with the rise of the concept of "branch point" or…
Thomas
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What are the origins of the study of symmetry as a subject in itself?
Symmetry has become a central concept in mathematics. The Euclidean concept of similarity is an example of symmetry, but similarity was not a subject of study in itself.
Q: How did symmetry come to take centre stage and become the subject of study…
nwr
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Why were the first steam engines “atmospheric engines”
Anybody who has boiled water knows that a positive pressure builds up when steam is produced. Indeed the first conceptual design of a steam engine (the Aeolipile) was a "positive pressure" engine. The fact that condensing steam produces a vacuum,…
Miguel
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Why were light bulbs traditionally marketed based on power consumption rather than light output?
Historically, incandestent light bulbs were marketed primarily by their power consumption in watt. I don't know if light output in lumen was specified at all. I'm not aware of any other electrical good sold primarily marketing power consumption:…
gerrit
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What is the origin of the term "Ordinary Differential Equation"?
Who first used the term "Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE)"? Is it known why the word "ordinary" is used here? What makes an ODE "ordinary"?
Stephan Kulla
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Why Doesn't Einstein Get More Credit for Being the Father of Quantum Mechanics?
I'm not simply referring to the notion that Einstein treated the discrete emission and transference of energy (and matter) as "real" physical phenomena, but rather his major continuous role in the development of QM all the way up to Heisenberg…
Albert Heisenberg
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When was the inverse relationship between tangents and quadrature/area first identified?
Problems concerning tangents and quadrature have a long history predating the Newton/Leibniz formulation of calculus; indeed, they are amongst the oldest problems in mathematics. It seems reasonable to assume that the relationship between the two…
nwr
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How did research reproducibility in medicine evolve over time?
Some recent studies have analyzed the percentage of research that is reproducible.
E.g. Prinz, F.; Schlange, T.; Asadullah, K. (2011). "Believe it or not: How much can we rely on published data on potential drug targets?". Nature Reviews Drug…
Franck Dernoncourt
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Kronecker vs Cantor — who won?
Now set theory is taught even to kids and it is the foundation of mathematics. Can we say that Cantor won?
ibnAbu
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