History of Science
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History of Science
Crash Course on youtube is going to be putting up videos on the history of science. Here's their preview:
[bbvideo=560,315]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hjGgFgnYIA[/bbvideo]
[bbvideo=560,315]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hjGgFgnYIA[/bbvideo]
"Knowledge grows through infinite timelessness" -- the random fictional Deepak Chopra quote site
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
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Re: History of Science
Do they have one where God grants wisdom to the researchers?
WWII Resources. Primary sources.Chachacha wrote:"Oh, thweet mythtery of wife, at waft I've found you!"
The Myths of Pearl Harbor. Demythologizing the attack.
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Re: History of Science
Wifey has a PHD in "History of Science." ////// ftl: it will be fun to ask her "What is stuff?"===>she rolls her eyes at such questions...always a joy to find a treasure trove of them.
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Re: History of Science
I've been trying!Gawdzilla Sama wrote:Do they have one where GoRd grants wisdom to the researchers?
"Knowledge grows through infinite timelessness" -- the random fictional Deepak Chopra quote site
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
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Re: History of Science
Thanks, Gord. It's exhausting work. I can take a break now. :wipesfeveredbrow:
. . . with the satisfied air of a man who thinks he has an idea of his own because he has commented on the idea of another . . . - Alexandre Dumas 'The Count of Monte Cristo"
There is no statement so absurd that it has not been uttered by some philosopher. - Cicero
There is no statement so absurd that it has not been uttered by some philosopher. - Cicero
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Re: History of Science
First episode!
"Knowledge grows through infinite timelessness" -- the random fictional Deepak Chopra quote site
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
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Re: History of Science
The title of this thread reminded me of a great little book called A History of Pi.
https://www.amazon.com/History-Pi-Petr- ... tory+of+pi
I haven't read it in years and just ordered a used copy from Amazon.
I can almost guarantee that anyone here who hasn't read it will love it.
https://www.amazon.com/History-Pi-Petr- ... tory+of+pi
I haven't read it in years and just ordered a used copy from Amazon.
I can almost guarantee that anyone here who hasn't read it will love it.
If one can be taught to believe absurdities, one can commit atrocities. --Voltaire
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Re: History of Science
I missed two episodes, either while I was away or while youtube was ignoring me and not telling me when new videos had been posted (or, alternately, telling me that someone had posted four, five, or even seven new videos when they had no new videos to see on their channels).
So here is episode #2:
So here is episode #2:
"Knowledge grows through infinite timelessness" -- the random fictional Deepak Chopra quote site
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
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Re: History of Science
Yaaaay!
And now episode #3:
And now episode #3:
"Knowledge grows through infinite timelessness" -- the random fictional Deepak Chopra quote site
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
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Re: History of Science
#4: India.
Elephants!
Elephants!
"Knowledge grows through infinite timelessness" -- the random fictional Deepak Chopra quote site
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
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Re: History of Science
If they don't start with, "Have you tried poking it with a stick?" I'm not interested.
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Re: History of Science
Dang, I almost missed #5 because of it's thumbnail (the title is in such a tiny font!):
"Knowledge grows through infinite timelessness" -- the random fictional Deepak Chopra quote site
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
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Re: History of Science
Have you tried chucking a rock at it?
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Re: History of Science
I like to carve all my best ideas into rock.
"Knowledge grows through infinite timelessness" -- the random fictional Deepak Chopra quote site
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
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Re: History of Science
That's skipping ahead a few million years. Have you tried smashing it with a rock? Maybe banging two together to make a spark?
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Re: History of Science
I only make sparks by accident, like when I knock my friend off a moving car and his teeth hit the pavement at 30 mph.
"Knowledge grows through infinite timelessness" -- the random fictional Deepak Chopra quote site
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
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Re: History of Science
Woah... That brings back a childhood memory...
Me and some friends were out playing late. It was dusk. Almost dinner time. I was maybe 8. But we found this weird rock. It was white, and crystalline. There were a bunch of other bits of it lying about. I picked up a bit and hit it. Not only did an orange spark fly off, but the crystal glowed blue. I said, go get your dad's hammer.
And then we smashed it to bits. There were many sparks.
One time I fell off the roof of another friend's car, and almost saved my beer. I have the scar to prove it.
Me and some friends were out playing late. It was dusk. Almost dinner time. I was maybe 8. But we found this weird rock. It was white, and crystalline. There were a bunch of other bits of it lying about. I picked up a bit and hit it. Not only did an orange spark fly off, but the crystal glowed blue. I said, go get your dad's hammer.
And then we smashed it to bits. There were many sparks.
One time I fell off the roof of another friend's car, and almost saved my beer. I have the scar to prove it.
This being was produced using the same process as other beings, and therefore, may contain traces of nuts.
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Re: History of Science
You smashed a wintergreen lifesaver with a hammer.


"Knowledge grows through infinite timelessness" -- the random fictional Deepak Chopra quote site
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
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Re: History of Science
Go to the light!!!!
WWII Resources. Primary sources.Chachacha wrote:"Oh, thweet mythtery of wife, at waft I've found you!"
The Myths of Pearl Harbor. Demythologizing the attack.
Hyperwar. Hypertext history of the Second World War.
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Re: History of Science
Episode #6.
"Knowledge grows through infinite timelessness" -- the random fictional Deepak Chopra quote site
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
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Re: History of Science
#7 The Islamic World.
Another elephant!
Also, astrolabes.
Another elephant!
Also, astrolabes.

"Knowledge grows through infinite timelessness" -- the random fictional Deepak Chopra quote site
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
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Re: History of Science
#8 Medieval China.
No elephants this time. Aw.
No elephants this time. Aw.
"Knowledge grows through infinite timelessness" -- the random fictional Deepak Chopra quote site
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
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Re: History of Science
Blatantly anti-elephant, then.
WWII Resources. Primary sources.Chachacha wrote:"Oh, thweet mythtery of wife, at waft I've found you!"
The Myths of Pearl Harbor. Demythologizing the attack.
Hyperwar. Hypertext history of the Second World War.
The greatest place to work in the entire United States.
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Re: History of Science
#9 Ancient & Medieval Medicine (AKA "Trumpcare")
"Knowledge grows through infinite timelessness" -- the random fictional Deepak Chopra quote site
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
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Re: History of Science
Alchemy!!
History of Science #10
History of Science #10
"Knowledge grows through infinite timelessness" -- the random fictional Deepak Chopra quote site
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
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Re: History of Science
Episode 11:
Still no elephants. Needs more elephants.
Still no elephants. Needs more elephants.
"Knowledge grows through infinite timelessness" -- the random fictional Deepak Chopra quote site
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
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Re: History of Science
And episode #12:
"Knowledge grows through infinite timelessness" -- the random fictional Deepak Chopra quote site
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
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Re: History of Science
Hooray! #13, the New Astronomy!
"Knowledge grows through infinite timelessness" -- the random fictional Deepak Chopra quote site
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
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Re: History of Science
#14, the scientific methods:
"Knowledge grows through infinite timelessness" -- the random fictional Deepak Chopra quote site
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
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Re: History of Science
#15 -- the new anatomy.
"How are you going to study a woman? Where are they?"
"How are you going to study a woman? Where are they?"
"Knowledge grows through infinite timelessness" -- the random fictional Deepak Chopra quote site
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
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Re: History of Science
OK. This one caught my eye.Gord wrote:#15 -- the new anatomy.
"How are you going to study a woman? Where are they?"
I've closely studied women my entire life. My observation is that they're everywhere. My method is a trade secret. In conclusion, more study is required.
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Re: History of Science
#16: The Columbian Exchange. I don't know which one yet 'cause I didn't watch the video before posting it here, but it's probably not this one: https://www.columbia.edu/
"Knowledge grows through infinite timelessness" -- the random fictional Deepak Chopra quote site
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
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Re: History of Science
Not bad as a popularization. The guy has a good delivery, and of course, you can't go into much detail in 12 minutes, so some appearance of inaccuracy is inevitable. He says that these guys had students who made copies of what they wrote down. Maybe so, but most of what we know about the pre-Socratics comes from quotations of documents that no longer exist, especially by Aristotle, who usually quotes only to refute. Our knowledge of the social history of the Pythagoreans is pretty much based on Plutarch and Aulus Gellius ("Attic Nights"), and these guys were as remote from Pythagoras as we are from Petrarch. The most comprehensive ancient history of science, allegedly a copy of a work by Aristotle's student Eudemus, of which the original no longer exists, comes from more than a thousand years after Pythagoras. Who can say how accurate these versions are? The only physical documents still extant are from a garbage dump in Oxyrhyncus, Egypt, and they are only a few fragments. (A famous one gives a theorem from Book II of Euclid, showing geometrically how to do what is called completing the square in algebra.)Gord wrote:I missed two episodes, either while I was away or while youtube was ignoring me and not telling me when new videos had been posted (or, alternately, telling me that someone had posted four, five, or even seven new videos when they had no new videos to see on their channels).
So here is episode #2:
About 50 years ago, a German scholar whose name escapes me at the moment did a complete study of every quotation from Pythagoras that seemed to be authentic, and concluded that the Pythagoreans really had no scientific interests at all, to speak of. Their interests, according to him, ran much more in the direction of Buddha and his followers. Maybe so, but then why did Plutarch and Gellius go into such detail about the scientific interests? Plutarch even quotes a couple of theorems he says are due to Pythagoras, and Gellius gives a detailed discussion of the sociology of the Pythagorean cult. Initiates were first called "akoustikoi" (auditors), then progressed to become "mathematikoi" (learners---mathein is the aorist infinitive of the verb meaning to learn) and finally "physikoi" (natural philosophers---physos means inborn or innate). The "-ik-" in each of these should be interpreted as "skilled at". So, at least, Gellius claims. Most historians of mathematics (notably Jeremy Gray and Wilbur Knorr) don't think the discovery of incommensurable pairs of lines (neither of which can be assigned any rational number as its length using the other as a unit) goes back to the Pythagoreans. They think it was made in Plato's school, and that it was not regarded as any big deal.
There is a small inconsistency in that he pronounces Empedocles approximately the way it sounded in Greek, while most anglophones put the stress on the -ped-, just as with Thucydides, although the Greek pronunciation is more like "two-cue-DEED-ace". On the other hand, he gives Thales the anglophone pronunciation, while the Greek sounds approximately like "tall-ACE". Well, that's OK. Pretty good job in general.
“It is certainly sad and regrettable that so many innocent people died…Stalin was absolutely adamant on making doubly sure: spare no one…I don’t deny that I supported that view. I was simply not able to study every individual case…It was hard to draw a precise line where to stop.”
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Skryabin (“Molotov”)
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Skryabin (“Molotov”)
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Re: History of Science
Newton and Liebnitz, rival geniuses!
Episode #17:
Episode #17:
"Knowledge grows through infinite timelessness" -- the random fictional Deepak Chopra quote site
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
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Re: History of Science
LeibnizGord wrote:Newton and Liebnitz, rival geniuses!

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Lard, save me from your followers.
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Re: History of Science
The job of a skeptic is to investigate the unexplained; not to explain the uninvestigated.
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Re: History of Science
Oh you'll believe anything the Liberal Media tells you.scrmbldggs wrote:LeibnizGord wrote:Newton and Liebnitz, rival geniuses!

"Knowledge grows through infinite timelessness" -- the random fictional Deepak Chopra quote site
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
"Imagine an ennobling of what could be" -- the New Age BS Generator site
"You are also taking my words out of context." -- Justin
"Nullius in verba" -- The Royal Society ["take nobody's word for it"]
#ANDAMOVIE
Is Trump in jail yet?
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- Has More Than 9K Posts
- Posts: 9612
- Joined: Sat Jul 14, 2007 5:51 am
Re: History of Science
On a completely irrelevant note, for many years, Popular Science magazine received an average of 30 of the same shop-tip per day: "Nail a jar lid to the bottom of a work shelf, to keep screws and small parts in the jar."
The job of a skeptic is to investigate the unexplained; not to explain the uninvestigated.
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Re: History of Science
Very ambitious, once again. Pretty good job, though far too focused on the "great men" aspect of science. Well, what the hell CAN one do, given 12 minutes to talk about the origins of calculus? Many French mathematicians, to this day, regard Fermat as the true inventor of calculus. And Descartes also deserves a lot of credit, as does Pascal. Those three French guys produced a lot of results that Newton and Leibniz didn't have to discover for themselves. For that matter, Newton's teacher, Isaac Barrow, actually proved a theorem equivalent to the fundamental theorem of calculus. It's hard to recognize it because it was phrased geometrically rather than algebraically. The geometry needed to be algebraized (which Fermat and Descartes actually did) before it could be simplified. In particular, instead of the derivative f'(x) of a function, Barrow, Pascal, Descartes, and Fermat all worked with the subtangent, which for positive functions f(x) is the quotient f(x)/f'(x). But obviously, if you can compute the one, you can compute the other. Newton was grossly unfair to both Descartes and Leibniz. (Whose name, by the way, is pronounced as if it were LIBE-nitz, not LEEB-nitz, as in the video. This guy also badly butchers the pronunciation of Latin in a way that would provoke objections from both a Benedictine monk and an Oxford don.) As for Descartes,Gord wrote:Newton and Liebnitz, rival geniuses!
Episode #17:
I got a news flash for ya, Ike: (1) The three and four-line locus problem really was earnestly sought after by the ancients, and Descartes also showed how to solve the five- and six-line locus problems. (2) The whole point of being a mathematician is to develop a nice compact notation, as Descartes did, to simplify thinking and avoid tedium and nausea.Isaac Newton wrote: Descartes makes a great show [of his solution of the three-line and four-line locus problem], as if he had achieved something so earnestly sought after by the ancients...[whereas if this algebra were written out in words], if would prove to be so tedious and entangled as to provoke nausea.
So, it's incomplete. Well, what can one expect in 12 minutes? I've foolishly allowed myself to get roped into an encyclopedia project for Bloomsbury Press in London, in which I'm supposed to write the history of Russian and Soviet mathematics from 1914 to 2000....in 5500 words! That's going to set a new standard for incompleteness. So, continue with the Crash Courses. They fulfill a valuable function, whereas my encyclopedia article, as they say, will fill a much-needed gap in the literature.
“It is certainly sad and regrettable that so many innocent people died…Stalin was absolutely adamant on making doubly sure: spare no one…I don’t deny that I supported that view. I was simply not able to study every individual case…It was hard to draw a precise line where to stop.”
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Skryabin (“Molotov”)
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Skryabin (“Molotov”)