History Definition and 548 Threads

Greetings, my name is Jamie. I'm a web developer in Maryland, working for a community college. I've been interested in science my entire life, and love learning new things. I graduated HS in 1995, and have managed to forget just about everything I learned about math, so it unfortunately limits...

The following are, at the top, photos of certain artifacts repatriated from a western museum to Iran, originally excavated from Jiroft, Iran. They are said to date from the 3rd millennium BC. Essentially identical objects are found dating to 12,000 BC at Gobekli Tepe, Turkey, 3rd millennium BC...

I was wondering if anyone knows of good self study books to help me in school. I am going to be a sophomore next year and trying to be extremely prepared. Here are the classes: Chemistry Honors World History AP Algebra 2 Honors European History AP English 2 Honors Spanish 3 Honors Thanks...

I'm looking for an entertaining book on the history of physics and math. I just want it to read for fun. A book that I really enjoyed (really, really) was Entanglement by Amir Aczel. It highlighted how everyone worked together, how they fought, etc. Any suggestions?

I thought this may be interesting, the decades old search for Dark Mater. arXiv:1605.04909 [pdf, other] A History of Dark Matter Gianfranco Bertone, Dan Hooper Comments: 86 pages, 8 figures Subjects: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO); Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)...

Recently I had a thread in PF and also participate in another one and somehow time after time the discussion touches on a few important points that deal with both history, politics and also a lot of stereotypical thinking about the world both how it's now and the way it was in history. We live...

Is there a way of coding a website such that the URL not sticks in history of the user afterwards? It is possible in iOS. This is a part of the trick that we are using, since nobody would want a website that is not shown in history without going in incognito mode.

It's strange how Wolram and I are thinking about similar things at the same time :-) I wanted to ask if you are interested in history and how much do you know about it? Do you think knowing history can help us understand what is happening now? Is it important to know it or is it just a hobby...

I live in a small village where there is little history apart from being mentioned in the dooms day book, we have a Roman fort near to us on the foss way, our nearest town is Warwick with its castle, apart from that our area is very boring unless you want to go to Stratford on Avon which is 15...

it's an old book of science, where can I find all those old science work to study science through its history?

Hello I VAGUELY recall reading somewhere (in the history of math), that there were intense and emotional (almost physical) arguments over who would use (claim?) what letter for what purpose in calculus: Δ δ d D ∂ Is this true? Can someone provide a reference? (I could be mistaken.) (My...

Once in the university library I came across an incredibly fascinating physics textbook different from pretty much every other I've encountered. It wasn't for general readers, but (in my opinion) tailored for undergraduate level students. The philosophy of the book was to develop not only an...

I do not have any education in particle physics, and I am trying to read the paper http://www.helsinki.fi/~hkurkisu/cosmology/Cosmo6.pdf . I would much appreciate some help regarding the specific questions below. The following is from the first page of the article. I gather that g is a count...

Homework Statement Not surprisingly there is an old forum post on this topic: https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/proving-force.46215/ However it doesn't contain the answer. Reposted: Two physics students are having a debate about the best way to define a force scale using rubber bands. Each...

I came to this forum having followed a thread about calculator comparisons (mathematics), but I'm intending to fill out my maths knowledge then support it with more physics information and comp sci. I've been knocking around on the Internet since about 1996, and had rattled around on some BBSes...

I'm wondering if someone can give a more detailed history of Dark Matter than what I've found on Wikipedia. How did Fritz Zwicky determine that a galaxy was in 'equilibrium' given the uncertainty of a line-of-sight measurement of velocity? How did he determine the mass given the variables of...

The following passage has been extracted from the John Stewart's English translated version of the "Sir Issac Newton's two Treatises: Of the Quadrature of Curves, and Analysis by equations of an infinite number of terms" http://archive.org/details/sirisaacNewtons00stewgoog: Here Newton...

micromass submitted a new PF Insights post The History and Concept of the Number 0 Continue reading the Original PF Insights Post.

Hi, I've got a strange situation. I'm a teacher in a foreign country, and one of my students wrote stories about historical characters. But his stories are so good, that I'm not shure if he has written them himself... My suspision is, that he has taken some Englisch stories, and translated...

Hi, Can anyone recommend some good ancient astronomy books (from around 8000BC-0) that that are historically correct (perhaps springled with a few translations from older writings) with visual images, and that show in some detail how different calculations, and observations were made? It would...

Hi! Nice to meet you all! Like you guys, I am also fond of reading science articles and brainstorming for better ideas that can help us in the future! No, I am not a genius or whatsoever however Like I said I am just here to enjoy reading physics and science stuff and make friends and We might...

I would like to know some history on the subject like who is the first to think about sum of squares of integers and what he/she was thinking about. I think maybe it is related to Pythagorean triples. Thanks

When I was a kid my Dad told me stories about uncle Mietek – brother of his mom (and my grandmom). Not that he remembered him – uncle Mietek joined Polish Army somewhere in nineteen thirties, went to Military Academy, and was killed in early September, just a few days after the WWII started. Dad...

I noticed that the Co2 is actually decreasing in the Eon time. My guess is lush vegetations or forests began to grow which absorbed the Co2 by photosynthesis? Would anyone give me any clue?

hello, I have a car robot with 2 motors which follows a black line. I want to save the track which the car follows. I can get the speed of each motor every. I thought about saving the 2 motor speeds every 100msec and then figure from this the track. Any ideas how I can do it?

Do you think Newton's piety was important to developing or fueling his philosophical and psychological impulses to be a great scientist and mathematician ? Did his religious and alchemical goals orient his scientific researches; his outstanding mechanical, mathematical, and optical theories...

I was reading the Wikipedia page on Dynamism in order to get an idea of the motivation and thinking behind Liebniz's physics. In it there is this paragraph: In the opening paragraph of Specimen dynamicum (1692), Leibniz begins by clarifying his intention to supersede the Cartesian account of...

Hi, I'm so hungrey for learning about the history of physics and chemeistry and learning how the experiments werer performed throughout history (The actualy experimental setup, and how the equations were derived). Are there any good boks to be recommended? There must be some books that actually...

I am looking for a book on the history of science. I do not want one that is targeted to 'general public', in the sense that I want it to be more towards the academic community, i.e. more deeply presented and cited, etc. Are there any recommendations?

In case you haven't come across it yet, there is a very informative overview of the history of physics education in the US, starting all the way from the 1860s. D.E. Meltzer and V.K. Otero, Am. J. Phys. v.83, p.447 (2015). It is 12 pages long, and covers some of the most significant movement...

Hello Everyone I am not 100 % sure if this belongs in career thread, so please feel free to tell me if this needs to be moved. I am currently happy with the career path I have chosen, I am still pursuing my MS in Electrical Engineering. However, lately I have been curious about something. I...

Hi, We were recently testing out waves on a string and completing a lab based on it, and I wanted to provide background information on how the equation v=fλ was formulated. I would greatly appreciate it if someone could direct me to a source on it. Thanks.

In math, we normally proceed by learning elementary arithmetic and then elementary algebra. For me algebra is all about assigning a symbol to an unknown value and manipulating it to find its value. Now I don't understand how concepts like groups, fields, rings etc. fall into the algebra...

Hi, I'm new to the forum... I just modified some ticker timers to serve as standing wave generators for my class. It got me wondering when ticker timers were first used to do physics motion experiments. I'm assuming it was from the time they had telegraphy, so maybe as early as the later 19th...

I am considering the following question and I want you to agree (but perhaps you don’t):Rutherford wrote a letter to Bohr, as an answer to a previous letter from Bohr containing one of the first of Bohr’s descriptions of the atomic model, saying that he understood the atom model Bohr advocated...

Hi Guys, new poster here. I am currently doing a practical report on Uniform Circular Motion, where we had to swing a rubber stopper around attached to a length of string and mass. I have to do a write up, including the background theory. I have searched everywhere but I have found no clear...

Good evening, I am in a bit of a predicament. I am writing a paper for my 20th century European history class (ewwww). I get to choose a "topic of my liking". As a physics/math major, I'd really like to tie it into science somehow, but I haven't the foggiest idea how. If it were just history...

I'm trying to understand on how people came up with gravitational law i.e. observations, experiments, theories etc. I have read a bit but there are some blanks that I cannot fill. I need some help regarding that. It seems that people like Hooke, Newton already knew that there exists...

Is anyone aware of any book(s) that presents the history of data analysis techniques? I'm most interested in how scientists during the enlightenment dealt with uncertainties and how techniques for dealing with uncertainty developed over time.

I'm looking for history books on the beginnings of physics (mechanics, electromagnetism, etc) focused on explaining the evolution of the various fields that we have nowadays in physics more than trying to introduce them. For example, I'm looking for books that talk about how Newton discovered...

I have one question about the history of the policies regarding DNA privacy the NIH has instituted. Simply, was there a particular study or research breakthrough that was the tipping point for instituting privacy measures? I just read an ethics paper called "Privacy and the Human Genome...

Does anyone have any suggestions for finding lists of all papers published by individual physicists? Usually the Google machine turns up hits pretty quickly, but I've hit a brick wall looking for lists for Max Planck and Ludwig Boltzmann. netlib.org/bibnet/ is amazing, but it's pretty narrow.

Hello, all, I am wondering if anyone can provide me information on the historical origin of error analysis; that is, with the quantification and mathematical manipulation of uncertainties in measurement. I find that all the textbooks I have stumbled upon provide a narrative of physical...

If the universe was created by the Big Bang, then how did Multiverse come into existence?

Shalom 1. Does anybody know where it is possible to read the original publication of Wolfganng Ridler (May he live long and be blessed) about Rinder coordinates? (acclerated observer in flat spacetime) When was it published? when was the decision to name it after him? 2. Is there any...

[Moderator's note - this thread was split out from another thread as an interesting but independent discussion] I really don't want to sidetrack this thread with something that will further confuse the OP, but I must point out to you that the concept of "wave particle duality" was dumped some...

I'm wondering if there are any good books for a semi-layperson (I study math in school, but at a low level right now), which detail the history of math. I'd be interested in knowing: Major Names (such as Euclid) Major Developments in Ideas (such as how calculus was created, how algebra came...

First, I completely understand that electrolysis to produce chlorates is simple, practical, and inexpensive. I understand that electrolysis to produce chlorates was being used in the late 19th century. I'm wondering, given the (somewhat) limited distribution of electrical power at the time and...

I know that QM and GR have not net been combined, so perhaps this is a foolish question, but I'll try anyhow. A photon traveling in the vacuum, has energy h/λ. That energy is fixed. It never varies in any circumstances (true?) except one. That one is the expansion of space time; i.e. the...

I would be interested in the equations of a gyrostatic ether as brought up by McCullach and Lord Kelvin, best in a modern notation. Before people jump on me: I an not interested in questioning modern theories like SR but rather in the extensions of continuum mechanics these theories go in hand with.