Questions tagged [math-history]
Use this tag for questions concerning history of mathematics, historical primacies of results, and evolution of terminology, symbols, and notations. Consider if History of Science and Mathematics Stack Exchange is a better place to ask your question.
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Using geometric constructions to solve algebraic problems (in Euclid and Descartes)
Long-time listener, first-time caller here. I've got what I guess is a history of math question. I've been teaching a college course on Euclid's Elements (surprisingly fun, btw). I've been using David ...
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Are theorems the same, semantically, as definitions? Or axioms?
Okay, I know about this question and have been looking for others that might speak directly to this. When I ask this question to Google AI (I don't use AI much at all),
Are all valid, proven ...
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Help Revising a 2-Column Proof for Euclid's Elements I.7
This is my working 2-column proof for Book 1 Proposition 7. I would be remiss in saying that this is completely foolproof. One question is how we are to formulate a proof by contradiction within the ...
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Is there any similar equation for π that someone has figured out?
I'm first off sorry if my title is a little vague, but I couldn't find any other way to put it. I'm also very sorry because I am extremely bad at math, but I thought that this was interesting none-the-...
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Practical and historical role of Jordan measure [migrated]
In my earlier questions, the proofs given by Asigan and D.R. showed that the Jordan outer/inner measure of the subgraph $[0,f]$ and the Darboux upper/lower integrals of $f$ are essentially the same ...
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Are there any other special mathematical definitions like $0! =1$ to ensure consistent and valid results?
In mathematics the $0!=1$ to ensure consistency in formulas.
Are there other examples in mathematics where unusual or seemingly odd definitions or conventions are adopted to maintain valid and ...
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Who named Green’s Theorem “Green’s Theorem”?
I have combed through George Green’s 1828 booklet An Essay on the Application of Mathematical Analysis to the Theories of Electricity and Magnetism a couple of times and see nothing there remotely ...
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Were any compass and straightedge constructions discovered only in modern times?
Compass and straightedge constructions are covered in Euclid's Elements, and there, we learn how to do many useful things with just those tools as the base - drawing parallel and perpendicular lines, ...
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Motivation for division polynomials (elliptic curves)
In Silverman's book The Arithmetic of Elliptic Curves, there is an exercise about Division polynomials associated to an elliptic curve (see also this question).
Those polynomials are defined by ...
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A supplement to "FROM FREGE TO GÖDEL A Source Book in Mathematical Logic, 1879-1931" for developments on type theory and computation
This is a cross-posting from Computer Science SE.
(Some background - Its actually the second time I am posting this question here. At the first time I was advised to post it on 'Histoy of maths SE', ...
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Where and how the term "simplicial vertex" orginated?
§1. Given a simple graph $G=(V,E)$, a vertex $v \in V$ is said simplicial if and only if its neighbourhood $N(v)$ forms a clique.
Recently, I wondered where and how the term simplicial vertex ...
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Historic mistake in sign of Korteweg-De Vries (KdV) equation
From one of Miura's papers on the Korteweg–De Vries (KdV) equation$^\color{blue}{\star}$:
$$\tag{1} \qquad \qquad u_t+uu_x+u_{xxx}=0$$ $$\tag{2} \qquad\qquad v_t+v^2v_x+v_{xxx}=0$$ It is an historic ...
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What is the area of the original "Conway car"?
In the context of the moving sofa problem, there are a couple of well-known shapes such as Hammersley's sofa and Gerver's sofa (recently shown to be optimal). The construction of the one by Hammersley ...
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Citation search: who proved the original Morse-Smale lemma?
Let $M$ be a smooth manifold and $f:M\to \mathbb{R}$ is a Morse function and $g$ is a metric on $M$. The Morse-Smale lemma states that for any Morse function $f$, there exists a generic metric $g$ ...
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Leibniz criterion and estimate, but for sums instead of series
Can you find some rough estimates for the value of
$$
S:=10000-200+170-140+90-89+40-30+30-12+5-2+1
$$
in your head?
Of course, we can: $9800\le S\le 10000$. (I am carefully writing $\le $ instead of $&...
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