In a letter to Henry Cavendish, a philosopher of the time named John Michell wrote about an intriguing idea, something very few people had ever considered.
Gustav Kirchhoff, a physicist, postulated that one could guess the element of a star by looking at the light it exuded. Pierre Janssen, a French astronomer, headed to India- Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, site of a great total solar eclipse. He saw a bright yellow line on a star, along with superheated hydrogen, thought to be sodium. Eight thousand kilometers away, an English astronomer, Norman Lockyer, saw the same yellow line. Both he and Janssen came to the same conclusion - it was a new chemical element. Their findings got to the French Academy at the same time in October 1868.
Wasn't there some overlap between Edison and Tesla? I don't have time to look it up, but I think there was some dispute over who made certain discoveries about electricity first. I also seem to remember that Alexander Graham Bell had some competitors. And that several companies were looking at graphical user interfaces at about the same time. It is said that Apple copied from Xerox (pun intended). We know Windows was built on that foundation. But we forget that Vision (created by Visicorp, maker of the first spreadsheet) preceded Windows. Microsoft had an opening there only because Vision bombed.
If I remember correctly, fellow Substacker Chad C. Mulligan, in one of his older blogs, mentioned some Chinese scholar who independently came up with the negative feedback loop that controls human population size that Malthus discovered.
If Michell and Laplace had ever met in person or exchanged letters, if one of them mentioned their theory, the other guy could say, "I thought of that, too."
You forgot to mention the main part: Newton developed his theory of gravity after the Moon fell on his head.
I might be misremembering a few details though, so don't hold me to it.
I think it was an apple that never actually fell on his head, but the Moon will do just as well!
Nice! Hadn't heard some of these tidbits before. Newton RULZ!
Plus, he was fn crazy.
That's a prerequisite for becoming a mathematician. :-)
I at least made that cut.
Gustav Kirchhoff, a physicist, postulated that one could guess the element of a star by looking at the light it exuded. Pierre Janssen, a French astronomer, headed to India- Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, site of a great total solar eclipse. He saw a bright yellow line on a star, along with superheated hydrogen, thought to be sodium. Eight thousand kilometers away, an English astronomer, Norman Lockyer, saw the same yellow line. Both he and Janssen came to the same conclusion - it was a new chemical element. Their findings got to the French Academy at the same time in October 1868.
Simultaneous discovery! Really cool.
Wasn't there some overlap between Edison and Tesla? I don't have time to look it up, but I think there was some dispute over who made certain discoveries about electricity first. I also seem to remember that Alexander Graham Bell had some competitors. And that several companies were looking at graphical user interfaces at about the same time. It is said that Apple copied from Xerox (pun intended). We know Windows was built on that foundation. But we forget that Vision (created by Visicorp, maker of the first spreadsheet) preceded Windows. Microsoft had an opening there only because Vision bombed.
Oh yes, Edison and Tesla were at the forefront of "The Currency Wars" - an incredible moment in both business and science history. It was wild!
Similar ideas come up at the same time, pretty much as a rule. That's one of the really interesting things that might shock some folks.
If I remember correctly, fellow Substacker Chad C. Mulligan, in one of his older blogs, mentioned some Chinese scholar who independently came up with the negative feedback loop that controls human population size that Malthus discovered.
If Michell and Laplace had ever met in person or exchanged letters, if one of them mentioned their theory, the other guy could say, "I thought of that, too."
Just like Newton and Leibniz, right?