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Scientific American
Scientific American Digital
Scientific American Mind
July 13, 2007
ASK THE EXPERTS
:
MATHEMATICS
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Astronomy
Biology
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Physics
What is the significance of E = mc
2
? And what does it mean?
Why is a minute divided into 60 seconds, an hour into 60 minutes, yet there are only 24 hours in a day?
What is the origin of zero? How did we indicate nothingness before zero?
What is Bayes's theorem, and how can it be used to assign probabilities to questions such as the existence of God? What scientific value does it have?
How can a poll of only 1,004 Americans represent 260 million people with only a 3 percent margin of error?
What is game theory and what are some of its applications?
On average, how many degrees apart is any one person in the world from another?
What is the origin of zero?
When is the beginning of the new millennium? Some say it is January 1, 2000 and others January 1, 2001? Who is correct?
Has there been any progress in developing fairer ways for people to vote in elections? I recall reading some time back about a system in which people would get one vote per candidate, not transferable between candidates; such a system was said to be fairer overall than one vote per voter.
Are mathematicians finally satisfied with Andrew Wiles's proof of Fermat's Last Theorem? Why has this theorem been so difficult to prove?
I've heard that the police are now using lasers in addition to radar to catch speeders on the highway. How does a laser measure the speed of a car?
In the February issue of Scientific American, Phil and Phylis Morrison repeat the "purist" claim that the next millennium will start on January 1, 2001. This seems naive. When we count, we implicitly start with zero, not one. So why is the year 2000 not the first year of the third millennium?
Where does the "meter" come from? My professor said that the meter comes from the length of a pendulum that has a period of one second. This definition is close but not right on. My dictionary says the meter was originally defined as 1/10,000,000 of the distance from the equator to the pole, but I notice that is not exactly right either. When was the original meter defined? Is it just coincidence about the pendulum?
Has chaos theory found any useful application in the social sciences?
What is pi, and how did it originate?
What is Godel's Theorem?
What is Russell's paradox?
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