8 myths we used to believe about great scientists

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Mendeleev did not dream of the periodic table, and an apple did not fall on Newton's head.

1. Pythagoras' theorem was invented by Pythagoras

Although the rule about legs and hypotenuses is named after Pythagoras, this does not mean that he was the first to invent and use it. For example, Pythagorean triplets - combinations of three numbers that fit into the equation of the Pythagorean theorem - were found on ancient Mesopotamian tablets. Babylonian mathematicians used them as early as the XX-XV centuries BC. That is, at least a thousand years before the birth of the Greek thinker.

There is a theory that Pythagoras was the first to prove this theorem, which is why it is named after him. However, it is reliably known that none of the contemporaries of the famous philosopher and mathematician attributed this achievement to him, and Euclid left the oldest written proof of the theorem. Beginnings. Book. I. Proposition 47 Euclid. He lived two centuries later.

For the first time, Cicero and Plutarch connected the proof with the name of Pythagoras five centuries after his death. And so the name Pythagorean stuck to the theorem of right triangles.

2. Archimedes discovered the law of buoyancy when he was bathing in the bathroom

According to legend, the ruler of Syracuse Hieron II suspected that the jeweler added a little silver to his new crown, and appropriated the remaining gold for himself. Therefore, Hieron asked Archimedes to determine if the master had cheated.

In the 3rd century BC, people still did not know how to determine the chemical composition of alloys, and Archimedes thought hard. Continuing to ponder the problem, he decided to take a bath. When the mathematician plunged into the water, some of it overflowed. At this moment Archimedes allegedly jumped up shouting "Eureka!" and ran naked through the streets of Syracuse. He realized that the crown with the addition of silver has a greater volume than the gold bar given by Hieron to the jeweler, which means that it will displace more water.

This is how Archimedes' law allegedly appeared: a buoyant force, equal to the mass of the substance displaced by it, acts on a body immersed in a liquid or gas.

In fact, most likely, there was nothing of the kind. The described method for determining the density of an alloy in practice would be very imprecise. A scientist like Archimedes would certainly have found a more elegant solution to this problem. For example, I would use a scale submerged in water.

For the first time, the story of the bathroom was told by the Roman architect Vitruvius, who lived two centuries later than Archimedes. Neither the mathematician himself, who left detailed descriptions of the laws of buoyancy and lever, nor his contemporaries mentioned anything like that. So, most likely, Vitruvius simply retold a tale invented by someone.

3. Galileo Galilei dropped items from the Leaning Tower of Pisa

In between the tribunals of the Inquisition, Galileo was engaged in science. For example, he refuted the statement of Aristotle about the influence of the mass of an object on the speed of its fall. For this, the Italian scientist allegedly dropped two balls of different weights from the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

The problem is that the astronomer only gave an example of such an experiment, but did not write anywhere that he really did it. In his treatise On Movement, he described the experiment as only hypothetical.

Perhaps Galileo did not confirm his words in practice, because such experiments had already been carried out by his predecessors and colleagues. For example, Padua mathematician Giuseppe Moletti.

The story of how Galileo climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa and dropped balls from there in the presence of students and professors was replicated by his biographer and student Vincenzo Viviani. Historians have not been able to find any evidence that such a thing happened in reality.

4. An apple fell on Isaac Newton's head

And so the great physicist allegedly created the theory of universal gravitation.

In fact, this is another legend. Newton's biographer and contemporary William Stuckley wrote that in a conversation over tea in the shade of an apple tree, the scientist told the story of his insight. It sounded like this: once Newton was sitting in the same way under a tree and an apple fell next to him.

Whether the 83-year-old physicist was telling the truth or telling a fable is unknown. But in any case, his head did not suffer in any way.

5. Dmitry Mendeleev saw the periodic table in a dream

When we think about a problem for a long time, its solution may appear quite suddenly. For example, during rest, including in a dream. That is, theoretically, Dmitry Mendeleev could wake up with the periodic table in his head. But in reality, everything was much more prosaic: the great Russian chemist had to fiddle with the elements for a long time.

All his scientific activities led to this discovery. For example, Mendeleev began to study the properties of substances with different atomic masses (the sign formed the basis of the periodic law) back in the 1850s. And the scientist made the first copy of his table only in 1869. It cost him many sleepless nights. Then Mendeleev worked on the final version of the table of elements for two more years. This is what he said in an Interview to the Petersburg Leaflet newspaper. Quoted from the book by P. Sletov and V. Sletova "Mendeleev" he himself:

Dmitry Mendeleev Russian scientist-encyclopedist, chemist and physicist.

I have been thinking about it for maybe twenty years, but you think: I was sitting, and suddenly a nickle for a line, a nickel for a line - it's done! Not so, sir!

A. A. Inostrantsev appeared in the myth of illumination in a dream. Memories in the memoirs of the geologist Alexander Inostrantsev. He was personally acquainted with Mendeleev and wrote that the chemist himself told this story. No one knows if such a conversation actually took place. It is quite possible that Dmitry Ivanovich, who loved to joke, simply teased his colleague by telling that fable.

6. Charles Darwin believed that humans descended from modern apes

Allegedly, this is how the British biologist tried to explain the appearance of man from the point of view of evolution.

In fact, Darwin really tried to find some kind of connection between apes and humans. However, the founder of evolutionary theory never claimed that chimpanzees and gorillas were our distant ancestors. The main message of Darwin's book The Descent of Man and Sexual Selection was that all living things, including humans and apes, have a common ancestor.

Of course, 150 years ago it was only a theory: the scientists of that era knew much less about the origin of people. In general, Darwin was close to the point of view of current biologists. It says that humans and modern apes had a common ancestor. But about six million years ago, the evolutionary paths of primates diverged. This is how hominids appeared: chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and humans. And although they have a common origin, they are different genera.

7. Alfred Nobel did not establish a prize in mathematics, because the mathematician stole his wife

Inventor, entrepreneur and philanthropist Alfred Nobel lived for 63 years, but was never married. However, there really was such a rumor about one of his lovers, Sophia Hess. According to legend, she cheated on Nobel with the mathematician Magnus Mittag-Leffler. The wealthy industrialist was allegedly so offended that he refused to donate money for the award in this area of knowledge named after him.

In fact, at first, Nobel included the discipline in the list of nominations, but then replaced it with a peace prize. The entrepreneur did not explain his decision. Perhaps Mitag-Leffler, the brightest mathematician in Sweden at the time, really annoyed Nobel with something. And not necessarily courting Sophia Hess: Leffler annoyed the philanthropist with requests to donate money to Stockholm University.

Or perhaps Nobel considered mathematics too theoretical a science that does not bring real benefit. Or the discipline was simply not interesting to him.

8. Albert Einstein received the Nobel Prize for the theory of relativity

Although most people associate Einstein's name with the theory of relativity, he received the main scientific award for other merits.

The reason, oddly enough, was the revolutionary nature of the theory of relativity, which the German physicist ardently defended. It threatened to supplant Newtonian mechanics, which had prevailed for 200 years. At the beginning of the 20th century, the idea that time and space were neither absolute nor uniform was considered marginal.

But the Nobel Committee could not ignore the merits of Einstein - the greatest scientist of his time. From 1910 to 1921 the physicist was nominated for A. Pais. Scientific activity and life of Albert Einstein for the award nine times.

As a result, the academics found a compromise and awarded Einstein "for achievements in theoretical physics and especially for the discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect." The latter was not chosen by chance - it was this theory of the famous physicist that was the least controversial and best proven. Not a word was said about the theory of relativity during the award.