Questions tagged [discoveries]
For questions about the location (in space and time) of scientific discoveries and their historical context.
197 questions
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The first time the time-dependent Schrödinger equation was written
I am going through Erwin Schrödinger's original papers Quantisation as a Problem of Proper Values I.-IV. (QPPV) (albeit in English) and I am curious about when the actual date was the time-dependent ...
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Pascual Jordan's paper on the "Fermi-Dirac" statistics
It is known that Pascual Jordan discovered what is now known as Fermi-Dirac statistics even before Fermi and Dirac. As Max Born said:$^1$
Ich hasse Jordans Politik, aber ich kann nie wieder gut ...
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When was mercurous nitrate, Hg2(NO3)2 discovered?
Prafulla Chandra Ray accidently discovered mercurous nitrite, $\mathrm{Hg_{2}(NO_{\color{blue}{2}})_{2}}$. However, this compound is wrongly attributed as mercurous nitrate, $\mathrm{Hg_{2}(NO_{\color{...
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Whos discovered the inequality $\log N<\sum_{n=1}^{N}\frac{1}{n}<1+\log N$ for finite sum of harmonic series?
I was reading an article from MSE, and it is about an inequality of finite sum of harmonic series
$$\log N<\sum_{n=1}^{N}\frac{1}{n}<1+\log N$$
It looks quite beautiful, and I am wondering who ...
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Who first discovered one useful lemma in proving $a_{n} ^{n} \to 1$ for some sequence $(a_{n})$
I was reading an answer from MSE written by @Paramanand Singh, and he used a lemma:
Lemma: If $(a_{n}) $ is a sequence of complex numbers such that $n(a_{n} - 1)\to 0$, then $a_{n} ^{n} \to 1$.
This ...
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Who first extended the limit $\lim_{n\rightarrow \infty} (1+\frac{1}{n})^n = e$ to complex case?
I was reading this post about who first discovered the limit
$$\lim_{n \rightarrow \infty} \left( 1 + \frac{1}{n} \right)^n = e$$
and since I have been studying complex analysis recently, one ...
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Young scientists and mathematicians who made important discoveries despite their advisors' advice to pursue a different course
The following Quanta article tells the story of Luísa Jabbur, a microbial chronobiologist who did research on cyanobacteria. She persuaded her doctoral advisor to conduct an experiment to confirm that ...
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Historical examples of works that merged different fields of mathematics after analytic geometry
In the 17th century, Descartes and Fermat developed analytic geometry, thereby connecting geometry and algebra. This was a revolution in mathematics that allowed to the solution of geometric problems ...
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What are some examples of fringe science theories from the past that are widely accepted today? [duplicate]
Throughout history, many scientific theories that were initially considered fringe or controversial have eventually become widely accepted within the scientific community.
These ideas often faced ...
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What is the origin of the method of undetermined coefficients?
This MSE post asked about a specific integration technique that appears to be attributed to Charles Hermite, per a comment. The OP's source calls the technique el método alemán, i.e. the German method....
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How exactly did Auguste Bravais come up with the regression line?
I am new to statistics and linear regression and I came across the face that auguste bravais discovered regression line but didn't realize it.
Auguste Bravais (1811-1863), professor of astronomy and ...
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Who was the inventor of the 18-electron rule?
According to Wikipedia, the first person who proposed 18-electron rule was American chemist Irving Langmuir, but the rule is widely known by the name Sidgwick's rule. I cannot find any information ...
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The history of motivations [closed]
Most histories, that I've encountered, of mathematics about the 18th century and onward focus on a chronology of publications, results, definitions, and similar "pure" interests. However, I ...
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Kekulé and his discovery of benzene
“I was sitting writing at my textbook, but the work did not progress; my thoughts were elsewhere. I turned my chair to the fire, and dozed. Again the atoms were gamboling before my eyes. This time the ...
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What motivated the idea of the Tschirnhaus transformation of polynomial equations?
As I studied Cardano's formula for the cubic, Tschirnhaus transformation came up as a very important step. The more I studied it the more attractive and interesting it seemed. So I am curious about ...
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