13 OCT 2013 by ideonexus
The Clock, Icon of Science
Philosophers were always looking for new handles on the universe—new
similes, new metaphors, new analogies. Despite their scorn for those who
cast the Creator of the Universe in man's image, the theologians never
ceased to scrutinize man's own handiwork as their clues to God. Now man
was a proud clockmaker, a maker of self-moving machines. Once set in
motion, the mechanical clock seemed to tick with a life of its own. Might
not the universe itself be a vast clock made and set in motion by t... 1 
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notesThe first icon to replace religous icons in Western culture.
30 JUL 2013 by ideonexus
Odd Sympathy
Laid up in bed during a brief illness and idly watching two clocks mounted in one case, Huygens noticed something strange: No matter how the pendulums started out, eventually they always ended up swinging in exactly opposite directions. Huygens wondered whether this odd sympathy might solve the longitude problem. Perhaps, he thought, two such clocks could regulate each other. If one got dirty, for instance, and started running slow, the influence of the other clock would lessen this effect. I... 1 notes
notesMathematician Christiaan Huygens, inventor of the pendulum clock found that two clocks on the same wall will invariably come into counter-synchronization with one another. This is because of thermodynamics and their connection via the support beam in the wall.
13 APR 2013 by ideonexus
Bayes and Richard Price on Predictions
Bayes’s much more famous work, “An Essay toward Solving a Problem in the Doctrine of Chances,”24 was not published until after his death, when it was brought to the Royal Society’s attention in 1763 by a friend of his named Richard Price. It concerned how we formulate probabilistic beliefs about the world when we encounter new data.
Price, in framing Bayes’s essay, gives the example of a person who emerges into the world (perhaps he is Adam, or perhaps he came from Plato’s cave) ...Folksonomies: statistics predictions
Folksonomies: statistics predictions
1 notes
notesGiving the example of someone who watches the sun rise each day, increasing the probability that it will rise again the next day, but that probability never reaching 100 percent.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Davy Refused to Patent His Safety Lamp
John Buddle, now entirely won over by Davy, was also concerned about a reward. By August there were 144 safety lamps ‘in daily use’ at Walls End, and they were rapidly spreading to all the other collieries in the North-East.91 Buddle urged Davy to take out a patent, pointing out that he could not only make his fortune but control the quality of the lamps issued to miners. Davy consistently refused, although he knew his colleague William Wollaston had made a fortune with a patent on proces... 1 notes
notesDespite the fact that it could have made him a fortune.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Davy VS Gay-Lussac in the Race to Discover Iodine
He was warmly received by Cuvier, Ampère and Berthollet, but got into an awkward priority dispute with the gifted young chemist Joseph Gay-Lussac. Gay-Lussac, Davy’s exact contemporary, had made a popular name in France with his intrepid ballooning exploits, and had been hard on Davy’s heels with potassium and sodium experiments. Both were now given by the Académie des Sciences a newly isolated substance to analyse: a strange violet crystal recently found as a byproduct of gunpowder man... 1 notes
notesStill disputed as to who won the race.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Herschel's Heterodox Opinions
Laplace’s cool confidence in avowing atheistical sentiments was legendary. The story was told that after Napoleon had inspected a copy of Laplace’s Systéme du Monde, he challenged the astronomer about his beliefs. ‘Monsieur Laplace! Newton has frequently spoken of God in his book. I have already gone over yours, and I have not found His name mentioned a single time.’ To this Laplace made the magnificent and disdainful reply: ‘Citizen First Consul, I have no need of that hypothesis.... 1 notes
notesHe believed in aliens living in the Sun, rejected praise for god in his work, but managed to avoid having his library burned down.
