What is Email: Definition and 185 Discussions

Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email entered limited use in the 1960s, but users could only send to users of the same computer, and some early email systems required the author and the recipient to both be online simultaneously, similar to instant messaging. Ray Tomlinson is credited as the inventor of email; in 1971, he developed the first system able to send mail between users on different hosts across the ARPANET, using the @ sign to link the user name with a destination server. By the mid-1970s, this was the form recognized as email.
Email operates across computer networks, primarily the Internet. Today's email systems are based on a store-and-forward model. Email servers accept, forward, deliver, and store messages. Neither the users nor their computers are required to be online simultaneously; they need to connect, typically to a mail server or a webmail interface to send or receive messages or download it.
Originally an ASCII text-only communications medium, Internet email was extended by Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) to carry text in other character sets and multimedia content attachments. International email, with internationalized email addresses using UTF-8, is standardized but not widely adopted.The history of modern Internet email services reaches back to the early ARPANET, with standards for encoding email messages published as early as 1973 (RFC 561). An email message sent in the early 1970s is similar to a basic email sent today.

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  1. S

    Email - before and after smart phones

    I communicate by email with several people who have begun to use smart phones. I noticed a big change in email after they got the smart phone. Their email became less reliable. They say they sent email that I didn't receive. They say they didn't get emails that I sent. I wonder if there's a...
  2. E

    Do you have to have a yahoo email to create a flickr account?

    Is it absolutely imperative to have a yahoo email to create an account on the photo sharing website flickr? I never cared for yahoo's email service and think that it's silly that I'm being forced to create an account there in order to join tumblr. There isn't any way around this?
  3. S

    How Do I Start Creating My Own Email Service?

    Hello Physics Forums, CS department, I want to create an email service similar to gmail.com or mail.yahoo.com. Where people can sign up for free. I have basic coding experience that includes getting an A on Intro to Java course at a university. Prior to that I have taught myself PHP. Ruby on...
  4. P

    Email to professors for research position

    Hello PF! I wish to do research as an undergrad, so I am thinking of sending emails to professors to ask for any available positions. What would be the most professional way to do this? Thanks in advance,
  5. P

    MHB Muhammed's question via email about an Inverse Fourier Transform (2)

    Here we will use the following transforms: $\displaystyle \begin{align*} \mathcal{F}^{-1} \left\{ \frac{n!}{ \left( a + \mathrm{i}\,\omega \right) ^{n+1} } \right\} = t^n\,\mathrm{e}^{-a\,t}\,\mathrm{H}(t) \end{align*}$ and $\displaystyle \begin{align*} \mathcal{F}^{-1} \left\{...
  6. P

    MHB Muhammed's question via email about solving a DE using Fourier Transforms

    a) Start by writing $\displaystyle \begin{align*} \frac{ 1}{ \omega ^2 - 7\mathrm{i}\,\omega - 10 } = \frac{1}{ \omega ^2 - 7\mathrm{i} \,\omega + 10\mathrm{i}^2 } = \frac{1}{ \left( \omega - 5\mathrm{i} \right) \left( \omega - 2\mathrm{i} \right) } \end{align*}$ Now applying partial fractions...
  7. P

    MHB Muhammad's question via email about an Inverse Fourier Transform

    Completing the square gives $\displaystyle \begin{align*} \frac{2\mathrm{i}\,\omega}{\omega ^2 + 10\omega + 29} &= \frac{2\mathrm{i}\,\omega}{ \omega ^2 + 10\omega + 5^2 - 5^2 + 29} \\ &= \frac{2\mathrm{i}\,\omega}{ \left( \omega + 5 \right) ^2 + 4 } \\ &= \frac{2\mathrm{i}\,\omega}{ \left(...
  8. Y

    My email keep sending out virus

    I have problem with my email keep sending out email with virus to others. I have change password a few times and it did not help at all. I have Norton 360 already and that does not seems to help. What can I do to fix it? It is a very new computer in service for about a month only and I have...
  9. P

    MHB Solving Integral Eq. using Fourier Transforms for Mohamed

    The first thing you need to do is take the Fourier Transform of both sides of the equation. $\displaystyle \begin{align*} \mathcal{F} \left\{ f(t) + 3\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}{f(t-u)\,\mathrm{e}^{-2u} \, \mathrm{H}(u)\,\mathrm{d}u} \right\} &= \mathcal{F} \left\{ 15\mathrm{e}^{-2t^2} -...
  10. A

    Cancellation Fontys Engineering Physics. Need Help On Writing An Email

    Hello guys, I applied for Engineering Physics, and I got admitted..and after a month, they sent me an email telling me that the program was canceled, and told me to inform them about my second choice which is ICT . so please guys I need you to give me some ideas on how to start the email...
  11. 462chevelle

    Is HonorSociety.org a Legitimate Website?

    Does anyone know if the Honorsociety.org website is legit or if it's a virus. I just got an email saying i got accepted into it. I usually ignore most of the emails on my school account. They're mostly job offers and what not.
  12. P

    MHB Douglas' question via email about Inverse Laplace Transform

    To start with, let's work on the Partial Fraction decomposition. $\displaystyle \begin{align*} \frac{A\,s + B}{s^2 - 16s +128} + \frac{C\,s + D}{s^2 + 16s + 128} &\equiv \frac{3s}{s^4 + 16\,384} \\ \frac{ \left( A\,s + B \right) \left( s^2 + 16s + 128 \right) + \left( C\,s + D \right) \left(...
  13. J

    The Unusual Email: Acceptance into Honor Society.org

    So I got a random email today telling me that I was accepted into the university honor society (honorsociety.org), whatever that is, due to my academic excellence and nomination. This is laughable considering my GPA sucks (although I have a 4.0 major GPA, just haven't taken many major classes...
  14. O

    How can I interpret an ambiguous email from my boss?

    An email conversation has gone like this: A: Can you come by sometime next week? B: I'm free Thursday or Friday C: "Can you stop by in the morning?" OK, does that mean he wants me to come by next Thursday or Friday in the morning, or is he separately asking me to stop by tomorrow?
  15. N

    Addressing a professor in email with first name

    Hey, Not sure if this subforum is the ideal place for it, but in some way I am asking for academic guidance, so... I was wondering: if a professor concludes his email to me using just his first name, is it then good etiquette to start my reply with "Dear [first name]"? I suppose the...
  16. B

    Quantified Statements and Email

    Homework Statement Let M(x,y) be "x has sent y an email message" and T(x,y) be "x has telephoned y," where the domain consists of all students in your class. Use quantifiers to express each of these statements. (Assume that all email messages sent are received, which is not the way things often...
  17. P

    MHB Discovering the Inverse Fourier Transform

    Miko asks:
  18. lisab

    How do you handle replies that don't include all original recipients?

    I sent out an experimental sample plan a few days ago. I copied four people, including our division director. Today I got a response from one of the recipients that made it clear he either didn't read the plan, or didn't understand a word of it. I won't claim to be a great technical writer...
  19. Borek

    Legal Email Advertising: Are You Aware of Regulations?

    Are you aware of any regulations about using (within law) emails for advertising? In Poland we have a law against spam that - basically - allows me to send a single email stating something like "We are a Bluewidgetcorp, producers of cheap and reliable blue widgets, if you are interested...
  20. G

    How can I automate opening email attachments and entering data into a form?

    I receive excel spreadsheets as email attachments all the time. I usually open the email, then the attachment, then I copy and paste the data into an html form. A php program automatically enters the data into mysql properly formatted. I would like to automate the process so that anyone...
  21. N

    Job Skills Sending a Follow-Up Email 3 Weeks After the Interview?

    I had a phone interview a little over 3 weeks ago and at the conclusion of the conversation they told me that they would send an email telling me if I got the internship or not. I didn't send a follow up email yet, but now I am wondering if I should? Is it too late? Should I do anything other...
  22. C

    So, got a number and email, but

    So I went to a bar with some friends, and it was completely packed. We decided to ask some people at a table if we could share it with them so we could sit (I'm living in Germany, and I guess people do this all the time, not like in the US where I'm from). So they of course let us sit down. And...
  23. I

    Programs PhD Applications - Worry about email replies

    I live in the UK and I am hoping to start a PhD next October, so currently I am emailing potential supervisors about projects which I usually start off with a cover letter and a CV, however I don't seem to be getting any replies back! This includes some professors who I have emailed before...
  24. S

    Schools Email professors for graduate school?

    Hello, I am beginning to apply for graduate schools. Normally I wouldn't have thought to email the professors I am interested in working with on research. However, I heard from a professor that when they were applying to graduate schools they were only accepted to those programs that they...
  25. R

    How do I handle email addresses in a paper as an undergrad?

    Hey guys, I have a question about email addresses in a journal paper. It is natural for authors who are professors to leave their .edu email addresses because are rarely changed. But what about for an undergrad? I am graduating in 2 years and the school will delete my account after I...
  26. T

    Unresponsive teacher via email - how long do I wait?

    Unresponsive teacher via email -- how long do I wait? I emailed a professor about an issue, and he replied that he'd check into it. The next day, I emailed him back thanking him and asking if he would email me back with his findings. he sent the first response last Wednesday, and I haven't...
  27. Y

    How can I write an Email to Professor?

    Recently, I am reading a paper from Ezra T Newman (in Pittsburg); I want to Email him to ask him a question about his paper. Unfortunately, I am an undergraduate have no such experiences. How should I write? Is there any templete?
  28. O

    Understanding Email Message Source: A Problem Analysis

    Consider the email message source below, and answer the questions that follow. Return-path: <xxxx@xxxx.xxx> Received: from cs.smith.edu (scinix.smith.edu [131.229.72.8]) by gwsmtp1.smith.edu with ESMTP; Fri, 29 Apr 2011 10:17:33 -0400 Received: by cs.smith.edu (Postfix) id D8D19EEC01...
  29. B

    Can TEX be sent and read in email?

    Hello, I would like to ask a question on sending TEX formulas in email. If I paste TEX code directly into an email client, will it be readable by the recipient? Does it depend on the email client they use? The most popular email client perhaps is MS Outlook, so does that support TEX...
  30. F

    How do I get this out of my email?

    The box where you type in your email in yahoo mail includes a "bing" search option I cannot erase from my email messages. How do I get rid of this? I just want to type emails with nothing in the text box. I use firefox as my main browser if that helps any. This is very annoying whenever I try...
  31. Shackleford

    Why Does Email Reply Show Full Name Instead of Address?”

    I've sent a few emails to someone, and in their reply in my inbox, the email address would show up in the From column. But in their latest reply, their full name showed up. Why is that? I didn't add them as a contact either.
  32. F

    Schools Should I email my potential advisors before applying to graduate schools?

    I'll be applying to grad schools over the next few months, and I've talked to a few professors at my university who have told me that it would be a good idea to find professors whose research specializes in what I'm interested in and email them, telling them a little about myself and that I'm...
  33. Simfish

    Gmail: trying to hide the address I'm sending email from

    Okay, so basically I have a university email address and a gmail account. Generally I autoforward all emails to my gmail account and reply to the emails by using an option that replies to emails by my university address rather than my Gmail account. But sometimes this option results in this...
  34. S

    Help on email for undergraduate research mentor

    Hello all, I am currently emailing a professor asking if he would be willing to mentor me and take me under as an intern. Unfortunately I do not know what is etiquette to state in an email such as this. Ultimately I am asking to meet and discuss the matter but I am unsure how to propose the...
  35. K

    Does any body know Michael Spivak's email?

    Does anybody know Michael Spivak's email?I want to ask him some questions in his book.
  36. G

    What's the email for the president of physics?

    http://xkcd.com/675/
  37. L

    Funny email received with Physics PE problem

    Hello, I recently got a "joke" email with this problem in it. The student drew an elephant in the middle of the ramp & answered "b" with: No, there is an elephant in the way. It is relevant to my current studies, so I worked it out and would like to know if I am correct. Please see...
  38. I

    How do I turn my email address into an image?

    I started to receive a lot of spam recently from my computer site and a friend suggested me that is because I have my email address listed in plain text on my contact page, and that I should turn it into an image instead. How do I turn my email address into an image?
  39. B

    Why Isn't My Teacher Responding to My Emails?

    I've been wondering this for a while. One of my teachers is particularly nasty in her emails to me. She has no problem critiquing me to the point of attempted embarrassment (getting other student's inputs about me to base her critique). She also has no problem yelling at me if I accidentally...
  40. drizzle

    Has My Guy's Email Been Hijacked? How to Tell

    how do I know if a guy’s email account has been hijacked by someone who sends a message to me? can I know who has sent the e-mail I received, the guy himself or the hijacker?
  41. DaveC426913

    Killing Email Zombie Virus: Purging 4000+ Emails

    It looks like my desktop was infected with a virus due to a fault in Norton* that caused it to not update its virus definitions. The virus turned the system into a zombie, sending out spam. Now many ISPs are identifying my IP as a source of spam and are refusing all email from me. Norton...
  42. D

    Best Email Clients for Conversation View

    Is there a client that allows the "conversation" style display of emails like on Gmail?
  43. J

    HELP,Please What does this Email mean?

    I applied for a REU program in our department one week ago, and I just received an email today. I think I was in when I read the first sentence, but as it turns out it is not. Dear XXX, We are very impressed with your application to join our REU team in theoretical astrophysics and...
  44. Z

    Should I respond to an Email from a Nigerian Princess?

    Hi everyone, I recently an email in my account, which I've copied and pasted below. It's apparently from the daughter of a deposed leader in Nigeria requesting help to access her funds worth a whopping USD $72.5M! That's a lot of money and all I have to do is give her my number and account.. and...
  45. R

    Is it ok to share papers through private email

    I am communicating with other researchers in neuroscience. Sometime they don't have access to a paper we may be discussing. For example the university access i have (Athens) has limits with each major publisher having some journals subscribed to Athens and some not. I wanted to know what...
  46. MTd2

    The email I sent to Petr Horava about CDT, LQG and his new theory. (no answer).

    I guess I will post not answered emails so that I can improve my ideas, or perhaps, seek better ideas to whom send a similar message. ********* Dear Petr Horava, In your article you say that your result reproduces the lattice computations of J. Ambjørn, J. Jurkiewicz, and R. Loll...
  47. B

    What Does It Take to Build a Career in Engineering?

    Name : Email : Optional 1.How would you describe yourself? 2.What influenced you to choose this career? 3.What specific goals have you established for your career? 4.How many years of schooling did you have to go through to become an engineer? 5.What kind of things do you do on...
  48. P

    Does MySpace Tom have a public personal email?

    Hello, Does MySpace Tom have a public personal email listed outside of MySpace? Why outside of MySpace? Yes that is why I need Tom's email. MySpace has been freezing on me for maybe about 2 or 3 weeks now. My computer is fine but it's with MySpace. I was just on it a little while ago. I have...
  49. J

    Can I Automatically Transfer Emails from My Old Hotmail Address to a New One?

    hi I was wondering, if there was a way , if i created a new hotmail address, that messages sent to my old address are automaticly transferred to my new one. Or, if this could not be done with hotmail settings, a program that creates a process at startup that will automaticly check messages...
  50. R

    LaTeX Text Email with LaTeX Commands

    Hey there folks, Does anyone know if there are any email programs out there where you could embed latex commands much like in this form with the tex and /tex commands. I think it would be pretty cool if there were. Rich
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