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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Explanation of an assertion by Gauss on an embedding of a surface in space
[I ask this question after a previous question of mine, which deals with a related theme, was closed (because it was too broad and unfocused). I will try now to ask several much narrower questions ...
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Where did the real number axioms 'come from'?
Currently trying to self-learn Real Analysis, with the first few chapters introducing the 'Axioms for the Real Numbers'. The Field Axioms and the Axioms of Order are closely related to how arithmetic ...
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History of small cardinals and cardinal functions
I'm presenting a poster on combinatorial chacarteristics of continuum and cardinal functions in an event of my university, and i'd very much like to give a historical background of how these things ...
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What is the name for this lemma/theorem? Any reference?
This question is about a statement to determine whether a point is the circumcenter of a triangle. It is NOT inscribed angle theorem which determines if a point is on the circumcircle of a triangle. ...
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Assuming we do not know radian measure, how do we find the derivative of $\sin(x)$ function when the domain is in degrees?
I stumbled upon this question - Derivative of the sine function when the argument is measured in degrees
where the answer from user Clarinetist uses the fact that $1$ radian = $\pi$/$180$ degrees then ...
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What are the equivalents of the haversine formula for other historical versed trigonometric functions?
On the Wikipedia page for the versine trigonometric function there is an interesting paragraph about the advantage of computing the versine of an angle via the haversine formula:
As θ goes to zero, ...
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Relation between two different definitions of saturation
I have come across two different definitions of "saturation". They look superficially very similar but (I think) are different. Is there any relation between the two or is it all just a ...
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Quadratic equations visualization: Al - Khwarizmi perspective.
I stumbled across Al - Khwarizmi method for solving/visualizing quadratic equations. For example if we want to solve
$$x^2+10x = 39$$
(equation is rearranged like this because we lived in a time where ...
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For what kind of problems was de Rham cohomology introduced?
I'm new to the world of (co)homology theories, and I have some difficulty understanding the intuitive motivation for introducing the de Rham cohomology.
More explicitly, I studied singular (co)...
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Why historically did Fourier want the edges of lamina to be zero?
I am reading Bressoud's highly informative "Radical Approach to Analysis", and one thing I am curious about is why did Fourier want the edges of the lamina (long thin slab) to be zero? This ...
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Explanation of an unpublished fragment of Gauss on a general solution of the surface development problem [closed]
Gauss’s Theorema Egregium established a necessary condition for the existence of local isometry between two pieces of surfaces – the Gaussian curvature of the corresponding points must be equal. ...
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Reference request for floor sum identity $\sum\lfloor kn/m\rfloor+\sum\lfloor km/n\rfloor=(m-1)(n-1)/4$ (often linked to Landau or Eisenstein?)
I am seeking reliable references for the following identity, which holds for positive odd integers $m, n$ such that $\gcd(m, n) = 1$:
$$ \sum_{k=1}^{\frac{m-1}{2}} \left\lfloor \frac{kn}{m} \right\...
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When did people start writing $kk$ as $k^2$?
When I read old texts, I often see them write out multiplication explicitly instead of using the square symbol. For example, in Riemann's paper "Über die Anzahl der Primzahlen unter einer
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Alternative definitions of geometric figures? Alternative translations of Euclid's *Elements*?
Recently, I have noticed that the sense of geometric figures in Euclid's Elements is somewhat different from ours.
For example, a theorem of Elements states that:
If a parallelogram is divided along ...
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Line integral varies by constant along transverse cut
My question comes from Foundations for a General Theory of Functions of a Complex Variable by Bernhard Riemann, section 9.5. I have the translation distributed by Kendrick Press. It states that the ...
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