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data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Treatise_on_the_Astrolabe-0.md
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title: "A Treatise on the Astrolabe"
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source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Treatise_on_the_Astrolabe"
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category: "reference"
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A Treatise on the Astrolabe is a medieval instruction manual on the astrolabe, completed by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1391. Notable as technical prose from a writer better known for poetry, it describes both the form and the proper use of the instrument. It was written in Middle English rather than the more typical Latin.
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The treatise is dedicated to Chaucer's son Lowys (Lewis), who was ten during its composition.
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== Significance ==
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The Treatise is considered the 'oldest work in English written upon an elaborate scientific instrument'. It is admired for its clarity in explaining difficult concepts, although modern readers lacking an actual astrolabe may find these descriptions difficult to understand. Robinson believes that it indicates that had Chaucer written more freely composed prose it would have been superior to his translations of Boethius and Renaut de Louhans.
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Chaucer’s exact source is undetermined, but most of his ‘conclusions’ go back, directly or indirectly, to Compositio et Operatio Astrolabii, a Latin translation of Messahala's Arabic treatise of the 8th century. His description of the instrument amplifies Messahala’s, and Chaucer’s indebtedness to Messahala was recognised by John Selden and established by Walter William Skeat. Mark Harvey Liddell held Chaucer drew on De Sphaera of John de Sacrobosco for the substance of his astronomical definitions and descriptions, but the non-correspondence in language suggests the probable use of an alternative compilation. A collotype facsimile of the second part of the Latin text of Messahala (the portion which is parallel to Chaucer's) is found in Skeat’s Treatise On The Astrolabe. and in Gunther's Chaucer and Messahalla on the Astrolabe.
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Paul Kunitzsch argued that the treatise on the astrolabe long attributed to Messahala was in fact written by Ibn al-Saffar.
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=== Language ===
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The work is written in the free-flowing Middle English of that time (1391). Chaucer explains this departure from the norm thus:
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"This treatis, ..., wol I shewe the ... in Englissh, for Latyn ne canst thou yit but small"
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Chaucer proceeds to labour the point somewhat:
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"Grekes ... in Grek; and to Arabiens in Arabik, and to Jewes in Ebrew, and to Latyn folk in Latyn; whiche Latyn folk had hem [conclusions] first out of othere dyverse languages, and writen hem in her owne tunge, that is to seyn, in Latyn.".
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He continues to explain that it easier for a child to understand things in his own language than struggle with unfamiliar grammar, a commonplace idea today but radical in the fourteenth century. Finally, he appeals to Royalty. Philippa Roet, Chaucer's wife was a lady-in-waiting to Philippa of Hainault, Edward III's queen. She was also a sister to Katherine Swynford, John of Gaunt's wife. Chaucer's appeal is an early version of the phrase "the King's English":
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"And preie God save the King, that is lord of this language, ..."
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=== Manuscripts ===
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Skeat identifies 22 manuscripts of varying quality. The best he labels A, B and C which are MS. Dd. 3.53 (part 2) in the Cambridge University Library, MS. E Museo 54 in the Bodleian Library and MS. Rawlinson, Misc. 1262 also in the Bodleian. A and B were apparently written by the same scribe, but A has been corrected by another hand. Skeat observes that the errors are just those described in "Chaucers Wordes unto Adam, His Owne Scriveyn":
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"So ofte a-daye I mot thy werk renewe,
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"It to correcte and eek to rubbe and scrape;
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"And al is thorough thy negligence and rape."
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A has indeed been rubbed and scraped then corrected by another hand. This latter scribe Skeat believes to be a better writer than the first. To this second writer was the insertion of diagrams entrusted. A and B were apparently written in London about the year 1400, that is some 9 years after the original composition. Manuscript C is also early, perhaps 1420 and closely agrees with A.
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== Audience ==
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Chaucer opens with the words "Lyte Lowys my sone". In the past a question arose whether the Lowys was Chaucer's son or some other child he was in close contact with. Kittredge suggested that it could be Lewis Clifford, a son of a friend and possible a godson of Chaucer's. As evidence he advanced that Lewis Clifford died in October 1391, the year of the composition, which could explain its abandonment. Robinson reports though the finding of a document by Professor Manly "recently" (to 1957) which links one Lewis Chaucer with Geoffrey's eldest child Thomas Chaucer. The likelihood therefore is that the dedication can be taken at face value.
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Chaucer had an eye to the wider public as well. In the prologue he says:
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Now wol I preie mekely every discret persone that redith or herith this litel tretys..."
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== Structure ==
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The work was planned to have an introduction and five sections:
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A description of the astrolabe
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A rudimentary course in using the instrument
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Various tables of longitudes, latitudes, declinations, etc.
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A "theorike" (theory) of the motion of the celestial bodies, in particular a table showing the "very moving of the moon"
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An introduction to the broader field of "astrologie," a word which at the time referred to the entire span of what we now divide into astrology and astronomy.
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Part 1 is complete and extant. Part 2 is also extant with certain caveats described below. Part 3, if it ever existed, is not extant as part of the Treatise. Part 4 was, in the opinion of Skeat, probably never written. Part 5 also was probably never written which Skeat approves of. Indeed, he draws attention to Chaucer's comment at the end of conclusion 4:
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"Natheles these ben observaunces of judicial matere and rytes of payens, in whiche my spirit hath no feith, no knowing of her horoscopum."
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=== Part 1 ===
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data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Treatise_on_the_Astrolabe-1.md
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title: "A Treatise on the Astrolabe"
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source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Treatise_on_the_Astrolabe"
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category: "reference"
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tags: "science, encyclopedia"
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date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:34:55.377579+00:00"
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The whole of this section describes the form of an astrolabe. The astrolabe is based on a large plate ("The moder" or "mother") which is arranged to hang vertically from a thumb ring. It has "a large hool, that resceiveth in hir wombe the thin plates". The back of the astrolabe is engraved with various scales (see Skeat's sketch below). Mounted on the back is a sighting rule (Skeat's fig 3, below) "a brod rule, that hath on either end a square plate perced with certein holes". To hold it all together there is a "pyn" with a "littel wegge" (wedge) as shown below at Skeat's fig 7. Into the "womb" various thin plates can be inserted which are designed for a particular place: "compowned after the latitude of Oxenforde". These plates show the star map. Surmounting them is a "riet" or "rete" which is a pierced framework carrying the major stars shown at fig 9. Outside all is another rule, this time not with sighting holes, mounted on the common pivot, see fig 6.
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=== Part 2 ===
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Part 2 consists of around 40 propositions or descriptions of things that can be done with the astrolabe. The exact number is uncertain since of the later propositions some are of disputed or doubtful authenticity. Skeat accepts that propositions 1-40 are unambiguously genuine. Robinson generally follows Skeat's reasoning. These first 40 propositions form the canon of part 2; the propositions that follow are usually labeled "Supplementary Propositions."
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== The astrolabe ==
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The astrolabe was a sophisticated precision instrument. With it one could determine the date, time (when the sky was clear), the position of stars, the passage of the zodiac, latitude on the earth's surface, tides and basic surveying. Care must be taken not to dismiss the astrological aspects; as well as any mystical interpretation astrological terminology was used for what today would be recognized as astronomy. Determining when the sun entered a house (or sign) of the zodiac was a precise determination of the calendar.
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Skeat produced a number of sketches to accompany his edition:
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The stars listed on the rim of the rete of the drawings in the Treatise are given below with their modern names:
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== See also ==
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The equatorie of the planetis by John Westwyk
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== References ==
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Footnotes
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Citations
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Bibliography
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== External links ==
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Plain-text format (with line numbering): Part 1 Part 2
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from eChaucer
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The text of A Treatise on the Astrolabe – presented in Middle English and Modern English side-by-side.
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A Treatise on the Astrolabe – a verb database (language analysis, description of the astrolabe and Middle English period)
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data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Universe_from_Nothing-0.md
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title: "A Universe from Nothing"
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source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Universe_from_Nothing"
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category: "reference"
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date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:34:57.714367+00:00"
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A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing is a non-fiction book by the physicist Lawrence M. Krauss, initially published on January 10, 2012, by Free Press. It discusses modern cosmogony and its implications for the debate about the existence of God. The main theme of the book is the claim that "we have discovered that all signs suggest a universe that could and plausibly did arise from a deeper nothing—involving the absence of space itself and—which may one day return to nothing via processes that may not only be comprehensible but also processes that do not require any external control or direction."
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== Publication ==
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The book ends with an afterword by Richard Dawkins in which he compares the book to On the Origin of Species—a comparison that Krauss himself called "pretentious". Christopher Hitchens had agreed to write a foreword for the book prior to his death but was too ill to complete it. To write the book, Krauss expanded material from a lecture on the cosmological implications of a flat expanding universe he gave to the Richard Dawkins Foundation at the 2009 Atheist Alliance International conference. The book appeared on The New York Times bestseller list on January 29, 2012.
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== Reception ==
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=== Praise ===
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Caleb Scharf, writing in Nature, said that "it would be easy for this remarkable story to revel in self-congratulation, but Krauss steers it soberly and with grace".
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Ray Jayawardhana, Canada Research Chair in observational astrophysics at the University of Toronto, wrote for The Globe and Mail that Krauss "delivers a spirited, fast-paced romp through modern cosmology and its strong underpinnings in astronomical observations and particle physics theory" and that he "makes a persuasive case that the ultimate question of cosmic origin – how something, namely the universe, could arise from nothing – belongs in the realm of science rather than theology or philosophy".
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In New Scientist, Michael Brooks wrote, "Krauss will be preaching only to the converted. That said, we should be happy to be preached to so intelligently. The same can't be said about the Dawkins afterword, which is both superfluous and silly."
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=== Critique ===
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George Ellis, in an interview in Scientific American, said that "Krauss does not address why the laws of physics exist, why they have the form they have, or in what kind of manifestation they existed before the universe existed (which he must believe if he believes they brought the universe into existence). Who or what dreamt up symmetry principles, Lagrangians, specific symmetry groups, gauge theories, and so on? He does not begin to answer these questions." He criticized the philosophical viewpoint of the book, saying "It's very ironic when he says philosophy is bunk and then himself engages in this kind of attempt at philosophy."
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In The New York Times, philosopher of science and physicist David Albert said the book failed to live up to its title; he said Krauss dismissed concerns about what Albert calls his misuse of the term nothing, since if matter comes from relativistic quantum fields, the question becomes where did those fields come from, which Krauss does not discuss. The Albert critique was reported on in multiple venues.
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Commenting on the philosophical debate sparked by the book, the physicist Sean M. Carroll asked: "Do advances in modern physics and cosmology help us address these underlying questions, of why there is something called the universe at all, and why there are things called 'the laws of physics,' and why those laws seem to take the form of quantum mechanics, and why some particular wave function and Hamiltonian? In a word: no. I don't see how they could."
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== See also ==
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Problem of why there is anything at all
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== References ==
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== External links ==
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Official website
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---
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title: "Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs"
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source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithms_+_Data_Structures_=_Programs"
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category: "reference"
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tags: "science, encyclopedia"
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date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:47.538229+00:00"
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instance: "kb-cron"
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---
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Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs is a 1976 book written by Niklaus Wirth covering some of the fundamental topics of system engineering, computer programming, particularly that algorithms and data structures are inherently related. For example, if one has a sorted list one will use a search algorithm optimal for sorted lists.
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The book is one of the most influential computer science books of its time and, like Wirth's other work, has been used extensively in education.
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The Turbo Pascal compiler written by Anders Hejlsberg was largely inspired by the Tiny Pascal compiler in Niklaus Wirth's book.
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== Chapter outline ==
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Chapter 1 - Fundamental Data Structures
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Chapter 2 - Sorting
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Chapter 3 - Recursive Algorithms
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Chapter 4 - Dynamic Information Structures
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Chapter 5 - Language Structures and Compilers
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Appendix A - the ASCII character set
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Appendix B - Pascal syntax diagrams
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== Later editions ==
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A revised edition was published in 1985 with the title Algorithms and Data Structures, 288 pages. It used Modula-2 instead of Pascal. There is a later version available in digital form which uses Oberon. Chapter 5 has been replaced with a chapter titled "Key Transformations (Hashing)".
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== References ==
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== External links ==
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ETH Zurich / N. Wirth / Books / Compilerbau: Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs (archive.org link)
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N. Wirth, Algorithms and Data Structures (1985 edition, updated for Oberon in August 2004. Pdf at ETH Zurich) (archive.org link)
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Wirth, Niklaus (2004) [updated 2014]. Algorithms and Data Structures (PDF). Oberon version with corrections and authorized modifications. Institute for Nuclear Research, Moscow: Fyodor Tkachov.
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data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithms_Unlocked-0.md
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title: "Algorithms Unlocked"
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source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithms_Unlocked"
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category: "reference"
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date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:48.685828+00:00"
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Algorithms Unlocked is a book by Thomas H. Cormen about the basic principles and applications of computer algorithms. The book consists of ten chapters, and deals with the topics of searching, sorting, basic graph algorithms, string processing, the fundamentals of cryptography and data compression, and an introduction to the theory of computation.
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== References ==
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== External links ==
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MIT Press: Algorithms Unlocked
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data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_Reality-0.md
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data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_Reality-0.md
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title: "Artificial Reality"
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source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_Reality"
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category: "reference"
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tags: "science, encyclopedia"
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date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:51.008449+00:00"
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---
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Artificial Reality is a book series by Myron W. Krueger about interactive immersive environments (or virtual realities), based on video recognition techniques, that put a user in full, unencumbered contact with the digital world. He started this work in the late 1960s and is considered to be a key figure in the early innovation of virtual reality. For 16 years Krueger was creating a computer system that connected the actions of a user to the real-time response of visual and auditory displays. Artificial Reality was published in 1983 and updated in Artificial Reality II in 1991 (both published by Addison-Wesley). Artificial Reality II was to explore the concept of 'Videoplace', which is when a users body is implemented into a computer created world full of color, sound, and visuals. Whilst the first iteration of the series Artificial Reality has laid the ground work for different branches of computer-generated worlds like Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. Visualization is key for all artificial realities to efficiently use data; resulting in being able to utilize human sensory systems that create these artificial realities.
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== References ==
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== External links ==
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Myron Krueger. Artificial Reality, Addison-Wesley, 1983. ISBN 0-201-04765-9
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Myron Krueger. Artificial Reality 2, Addison-Wesley Professional, 1991. ISBN 0-201-52260-8
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Kalawsky, R. S. (1993). The science of virtual reality and virtual environments : a technical, scientific and engineering reference on virtual environments, Addison-Wesley, Wokingham, England ; Reading, Mass
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Rheingold, H. (1992). Virtual reality, Simon & Schuster, New York, N.Y.
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data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Color_Terms-0.md
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title: "Basic Color Terms"
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source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Color_Terms"
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category: "reference"
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date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:39.008863+00:00"
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---
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Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution (1969; ISBN 1-57586-162-3) is a book by Brent Berlin and Paul Kay. Berlin and Kay's work proposed that the basic color terms in a culture, such as black, brown, or red, are predictable by the number of color terms the culture has. All cultures have terms for black/dark and white/bright. If a culture has three color terms, the third is red. If a culture has four, it has either yellow or green. (Note that this counts only the "basic" color terms. It does not include terms or descriptions such as "light blue", "carrot-colored", or "taupe". For more information, see the page on color terms.)
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Berlin and Kay posit seven levels in which cultures fall, with Stage I languages having only the colors black (dark–cool) and white (light–warm). Languages in Stage VII have eight or more basic color terms. This includes English, which has eleven basic color terms. The authors theorize that as languages evolve, they acquire new basic color terms in a strict chronological sequence; if a basic color term is found in a language, then the colors of all earlier stages should also be present. The sequence is as follows:
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Stage I: Dark-cool and light-warm (this covers a larger set of colors than just English "black" and "white".)
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Stage II: Red
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Stage III: Either green or yellow
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Stage IV: Both green and yellow
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Stage V: Blue
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Stage VI: Brown
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Stage VII: Purple, pink, orange, or gray
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The work has achieved widespread influence. However, the constraints in color-term ordering have been substantially loosened, both by Berlin and Kay in later publications and by various critics. Barbara Saunders questioned the methodologies of data collection and the cultural assumptions underpinning the research, as has Stephen C. Levinson.
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One concern is whether the concept requires too much discretion when deciding what counts as a "Basic" color term, or which color divisions count as essentially the same. This raises several open questions:
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Should light blue/azure be included with the stage VII color terms, even though it isn't basic in English? Is "orange" truly a "basic" term in English, and if so, is the selection of which terms are basic influenced by either the theory or historical accidents of European cultures? Are these color divisions for Gaelic or the Himba people fully compatible with the dark/light, then red, then yellow and green, then blue expectation?
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== See also ==
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Linguistic relativity and the color naming debate
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Blue–green distinction in language
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Color blindness
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== References ==
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== Further reading ==
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Witkowski, Stanley, and Brown, Cecil. (1977). "An Explanation of Color Nomenclature Universals." American Anthropologist, 79(1):50-57.
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Saunders, Barbara and Brakel, J. van (Jaap) (Fall 2002). "The Trajectory of Color". Perspectives on Science, 10(3):302–355.
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Saunders, Barbara A. C. (1992). The Invention of Basic colour terms. Utrecht I.S.O.R.
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Newcomer, Peter and Faris, James (October 1971). "Basic Color Terms". International Journal of American Linguistics, 37(4):270–275.
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Kay, P. and McDaniel, K. (1978). "The Linguistic Significance of the Meanings of Basic Color Terms". Language, 54(3): 610–646.
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Levinson, Stephen C. (2000). "Yélî Dnye and the theory of basic color terms". Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 10(1):3–55.
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== External links ==
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Chapter 133: "Number of Basic Colour Categories", by Paul Kay and Luisa Maff, World Atlas for Language Structures Online.
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The World Color Survey Archived 2017-11-30 at the Wayback Machine by Paul Kay and Richard Cook.
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---
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title: "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?"
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source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Bear,_Brown_Bear,_What_Do_You_See?"
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category: "reference"
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tags: "science, encyclopedia"
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date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:40.175916+00:00"
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instance: "kb-cron"
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---
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Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? is a children's picture book published in 1967 by Henry Holt and Company, Inc. Written by Bill Martin Jr. and illustrated by Eric Carle, the book is designed to help toddlers associate colors and meanings to animals. The book has been widely praised by parents and teachers and placed on several recognition lists. In 2010, the book was briefly banned from Texas’ third grade curriculum due to a confusion between author of children's books Bill Martin Jr, and author of Ethical Marxism: The Categorical Imperative of Liberation (Creative Marxism) philosopher Bill Martin.
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== Background ==
|
||||
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? is one of over 300 children's books written by Bill Martin, Jr. Martin came across illustrations by Eric Carle in a newspaper, and their collaboration began shortly after. Martin and Carle write poetic books they wished they had access to as students. Their use of simplistic and rhythmic language is to help students transition from reading to writing in early stages of education. Before Martin begins writing a book, he establishes a rhythm which is then repeated throughout the book. American author and illustrator Steven Kellogg describes Martin's purpose for writing his children's poetry books is to expose “children to the ‘music of language'." Martin believes the cheerful rhythm resonates with children, even if they do not understand the content.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Summary ==
|
||||
The plot consists of the narrator asking various animals and people what they see. Their response is an observation of another animal or person, which again prompts the initial question, "What Do You See?" This process creates a rhythmic pattern that is consistent throughout the book. The 1984 edition begins with a brown bear, then features a red bird, a yellow duck, a blue horse, a green frog, a purple cat, a white dog, a black sheep, a goldfish, a teacher (who was published in some of the other editions as a mother), and lastly, children, who repeat all the animals.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Publication history ==
|
||||
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? was published in 1967 by Doubleday and Company. By 2003, over 8 million hardcover copies had been sold, and the book translated into eight languages.
|
||||
There are four editions of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? with differing endings. Carle explained that variations in text between editions (mostly on the last page) were due to Martin, and that Carle made new illustrations to go with the changes. The 1967 first edition was created for the educational market only, and the final pages of the book features a teacher. Once released in bookstores, some later editions included a mother in lieu of the teacher. The 1970 edition includes a grey mouse between the blue horse and the green frog, and a pink butterfly between the purple cat and the white dog. The 1984 UK edition substitutes a monkey for the teacher.
|
||||
The 1992 edition was a restoration to Bill Martin, Jr's, original wording with the teacher at the end, while Eric Carle created new pictures based on the originals, intended to better represent the colors of the original.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
The book was listed as one of the "Top 100 Picture Books" of all time in a 2012 poll by School Library Journal. As of 2013, it ranked 21st on a Goodreads list of "Best Children's Books." The book is praised by many parents and school teachers, many of whom requested a trade edition of the book from the publisher. The large volume of requests led to additional collaborations between Martin and Carle, including three sequels: Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?, Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?, and Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?, with similar style and tone to Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
=== Texas State Board of Education banning ===
|
||||
In 2010, the Texas State Board of Education removed Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See from the statewide social studies curriculum because board members mistook the author Bill Martin, Jr. with an unrelated philosopher, Bill Martin, due to their similar names. The philosopher had recently published the 2008 book Ethical Marxism: The Categorical Imperative of Liberation, which board members intended to ban. Texas Board of Education member Pat Hardy was a vocal advocate for the removal of Ethical Marxism from public schools across the state, citing its "very strong critiques of capitalism and the American System".
|
||||
Though the children's book author Bill Martin Jr. had never published overtly political works, and had died several years before Ethical Marxism was published, the board mistakenly banned his picture book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See because they incorrectly believed it was by the philosopher. Pat Hardy later admitted to doing little to no research herself into Ethical Marxism, instead "trusting the research of another board member" who, it was later reported, had not read it either. The banning raised concerns about the board's ability to update the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills and other statewide standards.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRC_Handbook_of_Chemistry_and_Physics"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:28:45.494909+00:00"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:12.138702+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
36
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendrical_Calculations-0.md
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36
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendrical_Calculations-0.md
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Calendrical Calculations"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendrical_Calculations"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:53.364318+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Calendrical Calculations is a book on calendar systems and algorithms for computers to convert between them. It was written by computer scientists Nachum Dershowitz and Edward Reingold and published in 1997 by the Cambridge University Press. A second "millennium" edition with a CD-ROM of software was published in 2001, a third edition in 2008, and a fourth "ultimate" edition in 2018.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Topics ==
|
||||
There have been many different calendars in different societies, and there is much difficulty in converting between them, largely because of the impossibility of reconciling the irrational ratios of the daily, monthly, and yearly astronomical cycle lengths using integers. The 14 calendars discussed in the first edition of the book included the Gregorian calendar, ISO week date, Julian calendar, Coptic calendar, Ethiopian calendar, Islamic calendar, modern Iranian calendar, Baháʼí calendar, French Republican calendar, old and modern Hindu calendars, Maya calendar, and modern Chinese calendar. Later editions expanded it to many more calendars. They are divided into two groups: "arithmetical" calendars, whose calculations can be performed purely mathematically, independently from the positions of the moon and sun, and "astronomical" calendars, based in part on those positions.
|
||||
The authors design individual calendrical calculation algorithms for converting each of these calendars to and from a common format, the Rata Die system of days numbered from January 1 of the (fictional) Gregorian year 1. Combining these methods allows the conversion between any two of the calendars. One of the innovations of the book is the use of clever coding to replace tables of values of mildly-irregular sequences, such as the numbers of days in a month. The authors also discuss the history of the calendars they describe, analyze their accuracy with respect to the astronomical events that they were designed to model, and point out important days in the year of each calendar. An appendix includes full documentation of the software.
|
||||
One purpose of the book is to provide usable and efficient open software in an area where previous solutions were largely proprietary, incomplete, and buggy. Author Edward Reingold originally programmed these methods in Emacs Lisp, as part of the text editor GNU Emacs, and the authors expanded an earlier journal publication on this implementation into the book. This code has been converted to Common Lisp for the book, and distributed under an open license, and included within the book as a precise and unambiguous way of describing each algorithm. An R implementation of the software is available in the calcal package by Rob J. Hyndman.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Audience and reception ==
|
||||
This is primarily a reference book, but can also be read for pleasure by readers interested in this topic. Reviewer Victor J. Katz recommends this book to anyone who is "at all interested in how we deal with time". However, reviewer John D. Cook points out that, to understand the details of the algorithms described in the book, readers must be familiar with Lisp coding, and that it is difficult to skim without working through the details. On the other hand, despite not being easy reading, reviewer Antonio F. Rañada recommends it not only to "mathematicians, astronomers or computer scientists, but also for historians or for any person interested in the cultural aspects of science".
|
||||
Reviewer Noel Swerdlow views the first edition as a "work in progress", preferring the 19th-century tables of Robert Schram to computerized methods. And while praising it for avoiding the "second-hand errors, third-order simplifications, and outright myths" of many other millennial works on the calendar, reviewer Robert Poole points out as a weakness that it only considers a single version of each calendar, whereas historically these systems went through multiple revisions, and quotes the book as noting that its results are sometimes "mathematically sensible, but culturally wrong". Adding that the reduction of a human-produced calendar to a computer calculation is "sheer hubris", he nevertheless concludes that "We can be grateful that so useful a work of reference has been created from a project of such awe-inspiring futility". And reviewer Manfred Kudlek calls this "the most extensive and detailed publication on calendar systems" since the early 20th-century Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie of Friedrich Karl Ginzel.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
New moon
|
||||
Zeller's congruence
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
Edward M. Reingold's Calendar Book, Papers, and Code
|
||||
Calendrical Calculations on Google Books
|
||||
Calendrical Calculations on Worldcat (lending/reference library availability).
|
||||
23
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemisches_Zentralblatt-0.md
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23
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemisches_Zentralblatt-0.md
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Chemisches Zentralblatt"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemisches_Zentralblatt"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:08.612502+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Chemisches Zentralblatt is the first and oldest abstracts journal published in the field of chemistry. It covers the chemical literature from 1830 to 1969 and describes therefore the "birth" of chemistry as science, in contrast to alchemy. The information contained in this German journal is comparable with the content of the leading source of chemical information Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), which started publishing abstracts in English in 1907.
|
||||
Chemisches Zentralblatt was founded as Pharmaceutisches Centralblatt by Gustav Theodor Fechner and published by Leopold Voß in Leipzig in 1830. In the first year, 544 pages containing 400 abstracts were published, reporting all relevant research results in pharmaceutical chemistry. In the following 20 years the relevance of chemistry grew so much that in 1850 the title changed in Chemisch-Pharmaceutisches Central-Blatt, and in 1856 it became Chemisches Zentralblatt. In 1969, after 140 years the expenses for the collection of primary literature in many languages and the production of abstracts were too high and the publication of Chemisches Zentralblatt ceased.
|
||||
In these 140 years, scientific editors reported research progresses in chemistry with approximately 2 million abstracts, publishing over 650,000 pages. Additional 180,000 pages contain indexes such as index of authors, subject indexes, general indexes, register of patents, and formula register.
|
||||
Chemisches Zentralblatt was completely digitized by FIZ Chemie in Berlin. FIZ Chemie scanned the entire work and developed a full text searchable database for the web. In addition the database can be purchased and integrated in Intranets. The chemical software company InfoChem, based in Munich, developed an Internet-based database, the Chemisches Zentralblatt Structural Database. This database provides access to the chemical content within the Chemisches Zentralblatt by performing chemical structure and substructure searches.
|
||||
Since 2016, Chemisches Zentralblatt is available on the web via subscription as a part of SciFinder. These entries are labeled in SciFinder under codes CZ, CHZE, and CHEMZENT, and they may duplicate entries in other SciFinder sub-databases.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
FIZ Chemie
|
||||
Online access to earlier issues, US only
|
||||
38
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemistry_for_Breakfast-0.md
Normal file
38
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemistry_for_Breakfast-0.md
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@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Chemistry for Breakfast"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemistry_for_Breakfast"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:09.773246+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Chemistry for Breakfast: The Amazing Science of Everyday Life (German: Komisch, alles chemisch! Handys, Kaffee, Emotionen – wie man mit Chemie wirklich alles erklären kann) is a non-fiction book by Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim, published in 2019 by Droemer Verlag. Claire Lenkova did the illustration work.
|
||||
The English version, translated by Sarah Pybus, was published by Greystone Books in 2021.
|
||||
Nguyen-Kim stated that she wanted to show that chemistry can be interesting. Wade-Lee Smith of the University of Toledo library described the style as using "analogies and simple illustrations" to make chemistry comprehensible to the lay public, and that the tone is "casual and familiar".
|
||||
An editor of Science Magazine, Marc S. Lavine, wrote that the book's goal is establishing critical thinking instead of encouraging readers to pursue a career in science.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Contents ==
|
||||
The author describes actions in daily life by explaining the implications chemistry has for them. She shows that everything that surrounds us, including ourselves, is chemistry. She uses everyday phenomena and objects to explain the basic principles of chemistry in a light, conversational tone.
|
||||
Based on the daily routine, Nguyen-Kim addresses various aspects that lead through the whole world of organic, inorganic and physical chemistry: When waking up in the morning, melatonin and cortisone levels are crucial, she explains, when the first coffee works best (one hour after getting up) and why fluoride in toothpaste is important. Why sweat stinks is explained, as well as why we smell it - even if the realization is rather unpleasant. It explains why the hydrophilic protective layer of the skin is attacked by the surfactants during daily showering and what exactly happens in the process. When preparing a chocolate fondant, it becomes clear how food reacts chemically when heated and what we really taste on the tongue. The day ends with a convivial glass of wine, which is of course also chemistry at work in the body.
|
||||
The book also provides insights into the scientific world and the life of doctoral students and post-docs, which is characterized by long working hours with a high workload and having to cope with strict hierarchies. Nguyen-Kim also writes about her family, her friends and their heartache.
|
||||
She argues that promotions like "all natural" are used to fool consumers into believing such products are automatically better for them.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
Keogh described it as "impassioned, quirky, fun, and engaging".
|
||||
Lavine stated that the book appeals to readers through the storytelling and the "irreverence" in the narrative.
|
||||
Smith recommended the book for people without a background in science. Smith argued that he was not sure whether some of the characters in the stories actually existed, and that the stories "feel contrived".
|
||||
Wolfgang Schneider of the Frankfurter Allgemeine wrote that "Immer wieder findet Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim Vergleiche und Formulierungen, die komplizierte Sachverhalte anschaulich machen," (that the book used simple illustrations to clarify scientific concepts).
|
||||
Reviewer Melissa Wuske of Foreword Magazine gave a starred review and praised the translation and the "impeccable and personable" writing, describing the book as "engaging, accessible, and downright fun".
|
||||
Volkart Wildermuth reviewed the title at Deutschlandfunk Kultur: The author tells of her personal life in a lively and open-minded way, revealing chemical connections. In doing so, she always follows the credo: one must not be satisfied with simple answers. This not only explains chemistry, but also sets out scientific principles.
|
||||
Katja Maria Engel writes on 24 May 2019 at Spektrum.de that the author provides an "original, technically competent, well-researched introduction to chemistry, always with references", while remaining entertaining and also wanting to arouse scepticism towards unsubstantiated studies.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Further reading ==
|
||||
Wuske, Melissa (2021-04-16). "Reviewer Melissa Wuske Interviews Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim, Author of Chemistry for Breakfast: The Amazing Science of Everyday Life". Foreword Reviews.
|
||||
0
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code
Normal file
0
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Compendium of Analytical Nomenclature"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compendium_of_Analytical_Nomenclature"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:10.952274+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Compendium of Analytical Nomenclature is an IUPAC nomenclature book published by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) containing internationally accepted definitions for terms in analytical chemistry. It has traditionally been published in an orange cover, hence its informal name, the Orange Book.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Color Books ==
|
||||
The Orange Book is one of IUPAC's "Color Books" along with the Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry (Blue Book), Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry (Red Book), Quantities, Units and Symbols in Physical Chemistry (Green Book), Compendium of Chemical Terminology (Gold Book), Compendium of Polymer Terminology and Nomenclature (Purple Book), Compendium of Terminology and Nomenclature of Properties Clinical Laboratory Sciences (Silver Book), and Biochemical Nomenclature (White Book).
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Editions ==
|
||||
There have been four editions of Orange book published; the first in 1978 (ISBN 0-08022-008-8), the second in 1987 (ISBN 0-63201-907-7), the third in 1998 (ISBN 0-86542-615-5), and the fourth in 2023 (ISBN 978-1-78262-947-4).
|
||||
The third edition is available online.
|
||||
A Catalan translation has also been published (1987, ISBN 84-7283-121-3).
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
Official Site
|
||||
0
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compilers
Normal file
0
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compilers
Normal file
0
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Graphics
Normal file
0
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Graphics
Normal file
47
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computers_and_Intractability-0.md
Normal file
47
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computers_and_Intractability-0.md
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Computers and Intractability"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computers_and_Intractability"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:36:00.247158+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Computers and Intractability: A Guide to the Theory of NP-Completeness is a textbook by Michael Garey and David S. Johnson.
|
||||
It was the first book exclusively on the theory of NP-completeness and computational intractability. The book features an appendix providing a thorough compendium of NP-complete problems (which was updated in later printings of the book). The book is now outdated in some respects as it does not cover more recent development such as the PCP theorem. It is nevertheless still in print and is regarded as a classic: in a 2006 study, the CiteSeer search engine listed the book as the most cited reference in computer science literature.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Open problems ==
|
||||
Another appendix of the book featured problems for which it was not known whether they were NP-complete or in P (or neither). The problems (with their original names) are:
|
||||
|
||||
Graph isomorphism
|
||||
This problem is known to be in NP, but it is unknown if it is NP-complete.
|
||||
Subgraph homeomorphism (for a fixed graph H)
|
||||
Graph genus
|
||||
Chordal graph completion
|
||||
Chromatic index
|
||||
Spanning tree parity problem
|
||||
Partial order dimension
|
||||
Precedence constrained 3-processor scheduling
|
||||
This problem was still open as of 2016.
|
||||
Linear programming
|
||||
Total unimodularity
|
||||
Composite number
|
||||
Testing for compositeness is known to be in P, but the complexity of the closely related integer factorization problem remains open.
|
||||
Minimum length triangulation
|
||||
Problem 12 is known to be NP-hard, but it is unknown if it is in NP.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
Soon after it appeared, the book received positive reviews by reputed researchers in the area of theoretical computer science.
|
||||
In his review, Ronald V. Book recommends the book to "anyone who wishes to learn about the subject of NP-completeness", and he explicitly mentions the "extremely useful" appendix with over 300 NP-hard computational problems. He concludes: "Computer science needs more books like this one."
|
||||
Harry R. Lewis praises the mathematical prose of the authors: "Garey and Johnson's book is a thorough, clear, and practical exposition of NP-completeness. In many respects it is hard to imagine a better treatment of the subject." Also, he considers the appendix as "unique" and "as a starting point in attempts to show new problems to be NP-complete".
|
||||
Twenty-three years after the book appeared, Lance Fortnow, editor-in-chief of the scientific journal Transactions on Computational Theory, states: "I consider Garey and Johnson the single most important book on my office bookshelf. Every computer scientist should have this book on their shelves as well. [...] Garey and Johnson has the best introduction to computational complexity I have ever seen."
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
List of NP-complete problems
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Concepts, Techniques, and Models of Computer Programming"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concepts,_Techniques,_and_Models_of_Computer_Programming"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:36:01.425059+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Concepts, Techniques, and Models of Computer Programming is a textbook published in 2004 about general computer programming concepts from MIT Press written by Université catholique de Louvain professor Peter Van Roy and Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden professor Seif Haridi.
|
||||
Using a carefully selected progression of subsets of the Oz programming language, the book explains the most important programming concepts, techniques, and models (paradigms).
|
||||
Translations of this book have been published in French (by Dunod Éditeur, 2007), Japanese (by Shoeisha, 2007) and Polish (by Helion, 2005).
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
ISBN 0-262-22069-5
|
||||
Official CTM site, with supplementary material
|
||||
Yves Deville et al. review
|
||||
CTM wiki
|
||||
39
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_Mathematics-0.md
Normal file
39
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_Mathematics-0.md
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Concrete Mathematics"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_Mathematics"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:36:02.578948+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science, by Ronald Graham, Donald Knuth, and Oren Patashnik, first published in 1989, is a textbook that is widely used in computer-science departments as a substantive but light-hearted treatment of the analysis of algorithms.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Contents and history ==
|
||||
The book provides mathematical knowledge and skills for computer science, especially for the analysis of algorithms. According to the preface, the topics in Concrete Mathematics are "a blend of CONtinuous and disCRETE mathematics". Calculus is frequently used in the explanations and exercises. The term "concrete mathematics" also denotes a complement to "abstract mathematics".
|
||||
The book is based on a course begun in 1970 by Knuth at Stanford University. The book expands on the material (approximately 100 pages) in the "Mathematical Preliminaries" section of Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming. Consequently, some readers use it as an introduction to that series of books.
|
||||
Concrete Mathematics has an informal and often humorous style. The authors reject what they see as the dry style of most mathematics textbooks. The margins contain "mathematical graffiti", comments submitted by the text's first editors: Knuth and Patashnik's students at Stanford.
|
||||
As with many of Knuth's books, readers are invited to claim a reward for any error found in the book—in this case, whether an error is "technically, historically, typographically, or politically incorrect".
|
||||
The book popularized some mathematical notation: the Iverson bracket, floor and ceiling functions, and notation for rising and falling factorials.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Typography ==
|
||||
Donald Knuth used the first edition of Concrete Mathematics as a test case for the AMS Euler typeface and Concrete Roman font.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Chapter outline ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Editions ==
|
||||
Graham, Ronald L.; Knuth, Donald E.; Patashnik, Oren (1989). Concrete Mathematics - A foundation for computer science. Advanced Book Program (1st ed.). Reading, MA, USA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. pp. xiv+625. ISBN 0-201-14236-8. MR 1001562.
|
||||
Graham, Ronald L.; Knuth, Donald E.; Patashnik, Oren (February 1994). Concrete Mathematics - A foundation for computer science (2nd ed.). Reading, MA, USA: Addison-Wesley Professional. pp. xiv+657. ISBN 0-201-55802-5. MR 1397498. Errata: [1] (1994), [2] (January 1998), [3] Archived 2020-11-06 at the Wayback Machine (27th printing, May 2013)
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
ToC and blurb for Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science, 2nd ed.
|
||||
Preface for Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science, 2nd ed.
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Data Science and Predictive Analytics"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Science_and_Predictive_Analytics"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:36:03.786187+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The first edition of the textbook Data Science and Predictive Analytics: Biomedical and Health Applications using R, authored by Ivo D. Dinov, was published in August 2018 by Springer. The second edition of the book was printed in 2023.
|
||||
This textbook covers some of the core mathematical foundations, computational techniques, and artificial intelligence approaches used in data science research and applications.
|
||||
By using the statistical computing platform R and a broad range of biomedical case-studies, the 23 chapters of the book first edition provide explicit examples of importing, exporting, processing, modeling, visualizing, and interpreting large, multivariate, incomplete, heterogeneous, longitudinal, and incomplete datasets (big data).
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Structure ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
=== First edition table of contents ===
|
||||
The first edition of the Data Science and Predictive Analytics (DSPA) textbook is divided into the following 23 chapters, each progressively building on the previous content.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
=== Second edition table of contents ===
|
||||
The significantly reorganized revised edition of the book (2023) expands and modernizes the presented mathematical principles, computational methods, data science techniques, model-based machine learning and model-free artificial intelligence algorithms. The 14 chapters of the new edition start with an introduction and progressively build foundational skills to naturally reach biomedical applications of deep learning.
|
||||
|
||||
Introduction
|
||||
Basic Visualization and Exploratory Data Analytics
|
||||
Linear Algebra, Matrix Computing, and Regression Modeling
|
||||
Linear and Nonlinear Dimensionality Reduction
|
||||
Supervised Classification
|
||||
Black Box Machine Learning Methods
|
||||
Qualitative Learning Methods—Text Mining, Natural Language Processing, and Apriori Association Rules Learning
|
||||
Unsupervised Clustering
|
||||
Model Performance Assessment, Validation, and Improvement
|
||||
Specialized Machine Learning Topics
|
||||
Variable Importance and Feature Selection
|
||||
Big Longitudinal Data Analysis
|
||||
Function Optimization
|
||||
Deep Learning, Neural Networks
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
The materials in the Data Science and Predictive Analytics (DSPA) textbook have been peer-reviewed in the Journal of the American Statistical Association, International Statistical Institute’s ISI Review Journal, and the Journal of the American Library Association. Many scholarly publications reference the DSPA textbook.
|
||||
As of January 17, 2021, the electronic version of the book first edition (ISBN 978-3-319-72347-1) is freely available on SpringerLink and has been downloaded over 6 million times. The textbook is globally available in print (hardcover and softcover) and electronic formats (PDF and EPub) in many college and university libraries and has been used for data science, computational statistics, and analytics classes at various institutions.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
DSPA textbook (1st edition) Springer website and SpringerLink EBook download
|
||||
DSPA textbook (2nd edition) Springer website is published in The Springer Series in Applied Machine Learning (SSAML)
|
||||
Textbook supporting website
|
||||
38
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echoes_of_Life-0.md
Normal file
38
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echoes_of_Life-0.md
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Echoes of Life"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echoes_of_Life"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:13.316315+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Echoes of Life: What Fossil Molecules Reveal about Earth History is a book by Susan M. Gaines, Geoffrey Eglinton, and Jurgen Rullkotter concerning organic chemistry and, in particular, the links between the living and the material Earth. It was published by Oxford University Press in 2008.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Synopsis ==
|
||||
Echoes of Life chronicles the history of the discipline of organic geochemistry. In early experiments, Alfred E. Treibs identified organic molecules, which he extracted from various samples, as chemically altered chlorophyll. He explained the chlorophyll as having come from plants that died millions of years ago. Since Treibs' discovery, thousands of biomarkers (a term coined 25 years after Treibs' discovery) have been identified.
|
||||
Chapter one, entitled Molecular Informants: A Changing Perspective of Organic Chemistry, gives a brief overview on the history of organic chemistry and explores the possibilities inherent in the science. It also describes how the authors first became interested in the subject and the work they have done within the field.
|
||||
Chapter two entitled Looking to the Rocks: Molecular Clues to the Origin of Life looks at the findings of Sir Robert Robinson and Melvin Calvin discoveries of organic compounds in petrol and the conversion of CO2 to organic molecules during photosynthesis. Early experiments had shown that organic compounds can form spontaneously under conditions similar to the pre-biotic era of Earth. These findings led to speculation on the possible discovery on the origins of life. The chapter ends with the authors saying as a precursor to the next chapter
|
||||
|
||||
If it was hard to resist the mystique and romance of three-billion-year-old rocks that might contain clues to the origin of life on Earth, it was even harder to resist a hunt for signs of life or its precursors on other planets—if only for the thrill of seeing and handling their rocks.
|
||||
|
||||
Chapter three entitled From the Moon to Mars: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life. A Carbonaceous Meteorite which was found in Hungary in 1857, which was examined by Friedrich Wöhler was found to have organic compounds which he believed were Extraterrestrial in origin. The book moves on to Marcellin Berthelot who in 1864 claimed to have found "petroleum-like hydrocarbons" in a meteorite found near Orgueil. Louis Pasteur also ran experiments on this meteor and concluded it was sterile and not capable of generating life. The discovery of the Murchison meteorite also led to the finding of 70 amino acids most of which are not native to Earth's biosphere. The authors look into the work done on samples brought back from the Apollo program missions. Geoffrey Eglinton one of the authors had been given a sample and although he knew there had never been life on the Moon they had hoped to find organic compounds. None were found within those samples, which led to disappointment. These findings led the authors to speculate on the possibility of answering the question of whether there has ever been life on Mars and if future missions will bring back viable samples for testing.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
The book has received positive reviews in specialist scientific journals such as Astrobiology and from the Astrobiology Society of Britain.
|
||||
Bill Green, writing in Chemical & Engineering News, called it "a remarkable book" and a "highly readable introduction to the field of organic geochemistry and that it also manages to capture the deep sense of curiosity and wonder associated with scientific investigation.".
|
||||
In BioScience, Karen Bushaw-Newton said that "those who are looking to broaden their knowledge of the connections between chemical compounds and the diversity of life, will find Echoes of Life well worth reading."
|
||||
Katherine H. Freeman writing for Science said that "the authors interweave an account of the development of biomarker research and sketches of what these fossil organic molecules tell us about the histories of Earth and life".
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
Marcellin Berthelot
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
Notes
|
||||
|
||||
Bibliography
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Electronic Workshops in Computing"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Workshops_in_Computing"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:36:04.925873+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC) is a publication series by the British Computer Society.
|
||||
The series provides free online access for conferences and workshops in the area of computing. For example, the EVA London Conference proceedings on Electronic Visualisation and the Arts has appeared in the series since 2008, indexed by DBLP. Physical proceedings are also provided for conferences and workshops as well if required.
|
||||
The series is ISSN 1477-9358. A conference archive is freely available online from 1995.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
Lecture Notes in Computer Science
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
eWiC website
|
||||
@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_of_Analytical_Chemistry"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:28:52.426136+00:00"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:14.521637+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
16
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_of_Chemistry-0.md
Normal file
16
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_of_Chemistry-0.md
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Encyclopedia of Chemistry"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_of_Chemistry"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:15.647175+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Encyclipedia of Chemistry, full title The Encyclopedia of Chemistry, Practical and Theoretical: Embracing Its Application to the Arts, Metallurgy, Mineralogy, Geology, Medicine, and Pharmacy, was written by James Curtis Booth assisted by Campbell Morfit, and published in Philadelphia in 1850. Numerous editions were published. The eight volume book is 973 pages. Robert Cornelius produced daguerreotypes of Martin Hans Boyè to illustrate the book. It was published by H. C. Baird.
|
||||
Booth travelled to Germany and studied production processes for papermaking and dyeing. He wrote various articles and was involved in various editing and writing projects. Booth also wrote Memoirs of the Geological Survey of the State of Delaware published in 1841 in Newark, Delaware.
|
||||
Booth went on to become a melter and refiner for the United States Mint. Morfit authored the book Chemical Manipulations.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_of_Reagents_for_Organic_Synthesis"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:29:02.998871+00:00"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:16.841207+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Essentials of Programming Languages"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essentials_of_Programming_Languages"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:36:06.154094+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Essentials of Programming Languages (EOPL) is a textbook on programming languages by Daniel P. Friedman, Mitchell Wand, and Christopher T. Haynes.
|
||||
EOPL surveys the principles of programming languages from an operational perspective. It starts with an interpreter in Scheme for a simple functional core language similar to the lambda calculus and then systematically adds constructs. For each addition, for example, variable assignment or thread-like control, the book illustrates an increase in expressive power of the programming language and a demand for new constructs for the formulation of a direct interpreter. The book also demonstrates that systematic transformations, say, store-passing style or continuation-passing style, can eliminate certain constructs from the language in which the interpreter is formulated.
|
||||
The second part of the book is dedicated to a systematic translation of the interpreter(s) into register machines. The transformations show how to eliminate higher-order closures; continuation objects; recursive function calls; and more. At the end, the reader is left with an "interpreter" that uses nothing but tail-recursive function calls and assignment statements plus conditionals. It becomes trivial to translate this code into a C program or even an assembly program. As a bonus, the book shows how to pre-compute certain pieces of "meaning" and how to generate a representation of these pre-computations. Since this is the essence of compilation, the book also prepares the reader for a course on the principles of compilation and language translation, a related but distinct topic. Apart from the text explaining the key concepts, the book also comprises a series of exercises, enabling the readers to explore alternative designs and other issues.
|
||||
Like SICP, EOPL represents a significant departure from the prevailing textbook approach in the 1980s. At the time, a book on the principles of programming languages presented four to six (or even more) programming languages and discussed their programming idioms and their implementation at a high level. The most successful books typically covered ALGOL 60 (and the so-called Algol family of programming languages), SNOBOL, Lisp, and Prolog. Even today, a fair number of textbooks on programming languages are just such surveys, though their scope has narrowed.
|
||||
EOPL was started in 1983, when Indiana was one of the leading departments in programming languages research. Eugene Kohlbecker, one of Friedman's PhD students, transcribed and collected his "311 lectures". Other faculty members, including Mitch Wand and Christopher Haynes, started contributing and turned "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Meta-Universe"—as Kohlbecker had called it—into the systematic, interpreter and transformation-based survey that it is now. Over the 25 years of its existence, the book has become a near-classic; it is now in its third edition, including additional topics such as types and modules. Its first part now incorporates ideas on programming from HtDP, another unconventional textbook, which uses Scheme to teach the principles of program design. The authors, as well as Matthew Flatt, have recently provided DrRacket plug-ins and language levels for teaching with EOPL.
|
||||
EOPL has spawned at least two other related texts: Queinnec's Lisp in Small Pieces and Krishnamurthi's Programming Languages: Application and Interpretation.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
|
||||
How to Design Programs
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
Authors' home page for Essentials of Programming Languages, Third Edition
|
||||
Book homepage for first edition
|
||||
EoPL page on Schemewiki
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC"
|
||||
chunk: 1/2
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Draft_of_a_Report_on_the_EDVAC"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:36:07.303052+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC (commonly shortened to First Draft) is an incomplete 101-page document written by John von Neumann and distributed on June 30, 1945 by Herman Goldstine, security officer on the classified ENIAC project. It contains the first published description of the logical design of a computer using the stored-program concept, which has come to be known as the von Neumann architecture; the name has become controversial due to von Neumann's failure to name other contributors, i.e. John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, the key engineers of the ENIAC.
|
||||
|
||||
== History ==
|
||||
|
||||
Von Neumann wrote the report by hand while commuting by train to Los Alamos, New Mexico and mailed the handwritten notes back to Philadelphia. Goldstine had the report typed and duplicated. While the date on the typed report is June 30, 24 copies of the First Draft were distributed to persons closely connected with the EDVAC project five days earlier on June 25. Interest in the report caused it to be sent all over the world; Maurice Wilkes of Cambridge University cited his excitement over the report's content as the impetus for his decision to travel to the United States for the Moore School Lectures in Summer 1946.
|
||||
|
||||
== Synopsis ==
|
||||
Von Neumann describes a detailed design of a "very high speed automatic digital computing system." He divides it into six major subdivisions: a central arithmetic part, CA; a central control part, CC; memory, M; input, I; output, O; and (slow) external memory, R, such as punched cards, Teletype tape, or magnetic wire or steel tape.
|
||||
The CA will perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and square root. Other mathematical operations, such as logarithms and trigonometric functions are to be done with table look up and interpolation, possibly biquadratic. He notes that multiplication and division could be done with logarithm tables, but to keep the tables small enough, interpolation would be needed and this in turn requires multiplication, though perhaps with less precision.
|
||||
Numbers are to be represented in binary notation. He estimates 27 binary digits (he did not use the term "bit," which was coined by Claude Shannon in 1948) would be sufficient (yielding 8 decimal place accuracy) but rounds up to 30-bit numbers with a sign bit and a bit to distinguish numbers from orders, resulting in a 32-bit word he calls a minor cycle. Two's complement arithmetic is to be used, simplifying subtraction. For multiplication and division, he proposes placing the binary point after the sign bit, which means all numbers are treated as being between −1 and +1 and therefore computation problems must be scaled accordingly.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Circuit design ===
|
||||
Vacuum tubes are to be used rather than relays due to tubes' ability to operate in one microsecond vs. 10 milliseconds for relays.
|
||||
Von Neumann suggests (Sec. 5.6) keeping the computer as simple as possible, avoiding any attempt at improving performance by overlapping operations. Arithmetic operations are to be performed one binary digit at a time. He estimates addition of two binary digits as taking one microsecond and that therefore a 30-bit multiplication should take about 302 microseconds or about one millisecond, much faster than any computing device available at the time.
|
||||
Von Neumann's design is built up using what he call "E elements," which are based on the biological neuron as model, but are digital devices which he says can be constructed using one or two vacuum tubes. In modern terms his simplest E element is a two-input AND gate with one input inverted (the inhibit input). E elements with more inputs have an associated threshold and produce an output when the number of positive input signals meets or exceed the threshold, so long as the (only) inhibit line is not pulsed. He states that E elements with more inputs can be constructed from the simplest version, but suggests they be built directly as vacuum tube circuits as fewer tubes will be needed.
|
||||
More complex function blocks are to be built from these E elements. He shows how to use these E elements to build circuits for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and square root, as well as two state memory blocks and control circuits. He does not use Boolean logic terminology.
|
||||
Circuits are to be synchronous with a master system clock derived from a vacuum tube oscillator, possibly crystal controlled. His logic diagrams include an arrowhead symbol to denote a unit time delay, as time delays must be accounted for in a synchronous design. He points out that in one microsecond an electric pulse moves 300 meters so that until much higher clock speeds, e.g. 108 cycles per second (100 MHz), wire length would not be an issue.
|
||||
The need for error detection and correction is mentioned but not elaborated.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Memory design ===
|
||||
A key design concept enunciated, and later named the Von Neumann architecture, is a uniform memory containing both numbers (data) and orders (instructions).
|
||||
|
||||
"The device requires a considerable memory. While it appeared that various parts of this memory have to perform functions which differ somewhat in their nature and considerably in their purpose, it is nevertheless tempting to treat the entire memory as one organ, and to have its parts even as interchangeable as possible for the various functions enumerated above." (Sec. 2.5)
|
||||
"The orders which are received by CC come from M, i.e. from the same place where the numerical material is stored." (Sec. 14.0)
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC"
|
||||
chunk: 2/2
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Draft_of_a_Report_on_the_EDVAC"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:36:07.303052+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Von Neumann estimates the amount of memory required based on several classes of mathematical problems, including ordinary and partial differential equations, sorting and probability experiments. Of these, partial differential equations in two dimensions plus time will require the most memory, with three dimensions plus time being beyond what can be done using technology that was then available. He concludes that memory will be the largest subdivision of the system and he proposes 8,192 minor cycles (words) of 32-bits as a design goal, with 2,048 minor cycles still being useful. He estimates a few hundred minor cycles will suffice for storing the program.
|
||||
He proposes two kinds of fast memory, delay line and iconoscope tube. Each minor cycle is to be addressed as a unit (word addressing, Sec. 12.8).
|
||||
Instructions are to be executed sequentially, with a special instruction to switch to a different point in memory (i.e. a jump instruction).
|
||||
Binary digits in a delay line memory pass through the line and are fed back to the beginning. Accessing data in a delay line imposes a time penalty while waiting for the desired data to come around again. After analyzing these timing issues, he proposes organizing the delay line memory into 256 delay line "organs" (DLAs) each storing 1024 bits, or 32 minor cycles, called a major cycle. A memory access first selects the DLA (8 bits) and then the minor cycle within the DLA (5 bits), for a total of 13 address bits.
|
||||
For the iconoscope memory, he recognizes that each scan point on the tube face is a capacitor and that a capacitor can store one bit. Very high precision scanning will be needed and the memory will only last a short time, perhaps as little as a second, and therefore will need to be periodically recopied (refreshed).
|
||||
|
||||
=== Orders (instructions) ===
|
||||
In Sec 14.1 von Neumann proposes the format for orders, which he calls a code. Order types include the basic arithmetic operations, moving minor cycles between CA and M (word load and store in modern terms), an order (s) that selects one of two numbers based on the sign of the previous operation, input and output and transferring CC to a memory location elsewhere (a jump). He determines the number of bits needed for the different order types, suggests immediate orders where the following word is the operand and discusses the desirability of leaving spare bits in the order format to allow for more addressable memory in the future, as well as other unspecified purposes. The possibility of storing more than one order in a minor cycle is discussed, with little enthusiasm for that approach. A table of orders is provided, but no discussion of input and output instructions was included in the First Draft.
|
||||
|
||||
== Controversy ==
|
||||
The issuance and distribution of the report was the source of bitter acrimony between factions of the EDVAC design team for two reasons. First, the report was later ruled a public disclosure that occurred more than a year before the EDVAC patent application was filed, thereby rendering the eventual patent unenforceable; second, some on the EDVAC design team contended that the stored-program concept had evolved out of meetings at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering predating von Neumann's activity as a consultant there, and that much of the work represented in the First Draft was no more than a translation of the discussed concepts into the language of formal logic in which von Neumann was fluent. Hence, failure of von Neumann and Goldstine to list others as authors on the First Draft led credit to be attributed to von Neumann alone. (See Matthew effect and Stigler's law.)
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
Electronic delay storage automatic calculator (EDSAC), an early British computer inspired by First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC
|
||||
Harvard Mark I, an early electromechanical computer with instructions and numerical data kept separate (Harvard architecture)
|
||||
|
||||
== Notes ==
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
== Bibliography ==
|
||||
|
||||
von Neumann, John (1945), First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC (Michael D. Godfrey scan of U. Penn Moore School Library copy of original 1945 typewritten ed.), retrieved December 5, 2024
|
||||
von Neumann, John (1945), First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC (Internet Archive scan of Smithsonian copy of original 1945 typewritten ed.), retrieved December 5, 2024
|
||||
von Neumann, John (1945), First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC (PDF) (Original PDF with 1993 typographical corrections in TeX by Stanford professor Michael D. Godfrey ed.), archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-06-23, retrieved December 5, 2024
|
||||
von Neumann, John (1945), First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC (PDF) (Scanned PDF of 1993 typographical corrections in TeX by Stanford professor Michael D. Godfrey, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing ed.), retrieved December 5, 2024
|
||||
Goldstine, Herman H. (1972). The Computer: from Pascal to von Neumann. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-02367-0.
|
||||
Stern, Nancy (1981). From ENIAC to UNIVAC, An appraisal of the Eckert-Mauchly Computers. Bedford, Massachusetts: Digital Press. ISBN 0-932376-14-2.
|
||||
Godfrey, Michael D.; Hendry, D. F. (January 1993). "The Computer as von Neumann Planned It" (PDF). IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. 15 (1): 11–21. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.705.7264. doi:10.1109/85.194088.
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
Oral history interview with J. Presper Eckert, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota. Eckert, a co-inventor of the ENIAC, discusses its development at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering; describes difficulties in securing patent rights for the ENIAC and the problems posed by the circulation of John von Neumann's 1945 First Draft of the Report on EDVAC, which placed the ENIAC inventions in the public domain. Interview by Nancy Stern, 28 October 1977.
|
||||
70
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker's_Delight-0.md
Normal file
70
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker's_Delight-0.md
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Hacker's Delight"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker's_Delight"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:36:09.633335+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Hacker's Delight is a software algorithm book by Henry S. Warren, Jr. first published in 2002. It presents fast bit-level and low-level arithmetic algorithms for common tasks such as counting bits or improving speed of division by using multiplication.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Background ==
|
||||
The author, an IBM researcher working on systems ranging from the IBM 704 to the PowerPC, collected what he called "programming tricks" over the course of his career. These tricks concern efficient low-level manipulation of bit strings and numbers. According to the book's foreword by Guy L. Steele, the target audience includes compiler writers and people writing high-performance code.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Summary ==
|
||||
Programming examples are written in C and assembler for a RISC architecture similar, but not identical to PowerPC. Algorithms are given as formulas for any number of bits, the examples usually for 32 bits.
|
||||
Apart from the introduction, chapters are independent of each other, each focusing on a particular subject. Many algorithms in the book depend on two's complement integer numbers.
|
||||
The subject matter of the second edition of the book includes algorithms for
|
||||
|
||||
Basic algorithms for manipulating individual bits, formulas for identities, inequalities, overflow detection for arithmetic operations and shifts
|
||||
Rounding up and down to a multiple of a known power of two, the next power of two and for detecting whether an operation crossed a power-of-two boundary
|
||||
Checking bounds
|
||||
Counting total, leading and trailing zeros
|
||||
Searching for bit strings
|
||||
Permutations of bits and bytes in a word
|
||||
Software algorithms for multiplication
|
||||
Integer division
|
||||
Efficient integer division and calculating of the remainder when the divisor is known
|
||||
Integer square and cube roots
|
||||
Unusual number systems, including base −2
|
||||
Transfer of values between floating-point and integer
|
||||
Cyclic redundancy checks, error-correcting codes and Gray codes
|
||||
Hilbert curves, including a discussion of applications
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Style ==
|
||||
The style is that of an informal mathematical textbook. Formulas are used extensively. Mathematical proofs are given for some non-obvious algorithms, but are not the focus of the book.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
Overall reception has been generally positive.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Publication history ==
|
||||
The book was published by Addison-Wesley Professional. The first edition was released in 2002 and the second in 2013.
|
||||
Japanese language edition of this book was published by SIBaccess Co. Ltd., in 2004.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
HAKMEM
|
||||
Popcount
|
||||
Find first set
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Further reading ==
|
||||
Beeler, Michael; Gosper, Ralph William; Schroeppel, Richard C. (April 1995) [1972-02-29]. "Artificial Intelligence Memo No. 239". In Baker, Henry Givens Jr. (ed.). HAKMEM (retyped & converted ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA: Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Archived from the original on 2019-10-08. Retrieved 2016-01-02.
|
||||
Jones, Douglas W. (2014-09-10) [1999]. "Arithmetic Tutorials". Iowa City, Iowa, USA: The University of Iowa, Department of Computer Science. Archived from the original on 2019-07-10. Retrieved 2016-01-03.
|
||||
Cowlishaw, Mike F. (2015) [1981, 2008]. "General Decimal Arithmetic". Archived from the original on 2019-11-02. Retrieved 2016-01-02.
|
||||
Ingenoso, Tony (1999-02-03) [1998]. "Chapter 11 - More tricks in C and Assembler code". Making Code Work Better - How to minimize the size of 80x86 code and sometimes make it faster (e-book). Archived from the original on 2019-11-18. Retrieved 2019-11-18.
|
||||
Anderson, Sean Eron, ed. (2009-11-26) [1997]. "Bit Twiddling Hacks". Stanford University. Archived from the original on 2020-06-01. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
Archive of Hacker's Delight website
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Handbook of Automated Reasoning"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handbook_of_Automated_Reasoning"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:36:10.776287+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Handbook of Automated Reasoning (ISBN 0444508139, 2128 pages) is a collection of survey articles on the field of automated reasoning. Published in June 2001 by MIT Press, it is edited by John Alan Robinson and Andrei Voronkov. Volume 1 describes methods for classical logic, first-order logic with equality and other theories, and induction. Volume 2 covers higher-order, non-classical and other kinds of logic.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Index ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
=== Volume 1 ===
|
||||
History
|
||||
|
||||
Classical Logic
|
||||
|
||||
Equality and Other Theories
|
||||
|
||||
Induction
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
=== Volume 2 ===
|
||||
Higher-Order Logic and Logical Frameworks
|
||||
|
||||
Nonclassical Logics
|
||||
|
||||
Decidable Classes and Model Building
|
||||
|
||||
Implementation
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
MIT press page
|
||||
19
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handbook_of_Electrochemistry-0.md
Normal file
19
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handbook_of_Electrochemistry-0.md
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Handbook of Electrochemistry"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handbook_of_Electrochemistry"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:19.218262+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Handbook of Electrochemistry, edited by Cynthia Zoski, is a sourcebook containing a wide range of electrochemical information. It provides details of experimental considerations, typical calculations, and illustrates many of the possibilities open to electrochemical experimentators.
|
||||
The book has five sections: Fundamentals, Laboratory Practical, Techniques, Applications, and Data - and each contains a series of entries by a range of scholars.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
Elsevier's page for the Handbook of Electrochemistry
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Handbook of Porphyrin Science"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handbook_of_Porphyrin_Science"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:20.372305+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Published by World Scientific, the Handbook of Porphyrin Science: With Applications to Chemistry, Physics, Materials Science, Engineering, Biology and Medicine is a multi-volume reference set edited by scientists Karl Kadish, Kevin Smith and Roger Guilard. The first ten volumes were published in 2010 and the 46th volume was published in 2022.
|
||||
Topics covered include:
|
||||
|
||||
Developments in Supramolecular Chemistry Based on Porphyrins and Related Systems
|
||||
Involvement of Porphyrins and Related Systems in Catalysis
|
||||
Phototherapy, Radioimmunotherapy and Imaging
|
||||
Advances in Synthesis and Coordination Chemistry of Porphyrins, Phthalocyanines and Related Systems
|
||||
Heme Proteins
|
||||
The current work stems from World Scientific's Journal of Porphyrins and Phthalocyanines (JPP) and from the research interests of the three editors and hundreds of authors who have presented the results of their research in this society-run journal since its founding in 1997.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
"Karl Kadish at University of Houston". Archived from the original on 2009-03-09.
|
||||
"The Handbook of Porphyrin Science at World Scientific". Archived from the original on 2010-03-31. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
|
||||
40
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homesteading_the_Noosphere-0.md
Normal file
40
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homesteading_the_Noosphere-0.md
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Homesteading the Noosphere"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homesteading_the_Noosphere"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:36:11.966634+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
"Homesteading the Noosphere" (abbreviated HtN) is an essay written by Eric S. Raymond about the social workings of open-source software development. It follows his previous piece "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" (1997).
|
||||
The essay examines issues of project ownership and transfer, as well as investigating possible anthropological roots of the gift culture in open source as contrasted with the exchange culture of closed source software. Raymond also investigates the nature of the spread of open source into the untamed frontier of ideas he terms the noosphere, postulating that projects that range too far ahead of their time fail because they are too far out in the wilderness, and that successful projects tend to relate to existing projects.
|
||||
Raymond delves into the contrast between the stated aims of open source and observed behaviors, and also explores the underlying motivations of people involved in the open-source movement. He notes that a key motivation for open-source practitioners is their membership of and reputation within each project's "tribe". In contrast, Microsoft's "embrace and extend" policy complexified and closed up Internet protocols with "protocol pollution."
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Citations ==
|
||||
"Homesteading the Noosphere" has been referenced in various papers, including:
|
||||
|
||||
The impact of ideology on effectiveness in open source software development teams
|
||||
An Overview of the Software Engineering Process and Tools in the Mozilla Project
|
||||
From Planning to Mature: on the Determinants of Open Source Take Off, Discussion paper 2005-17, Università degli Studi di Trento
|
||||
Open borders? Immigration in open source projects
|
||||
Public commons of geographic data: research and development challenges
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== In popular culture ==
|
||||
In the Japanese novel series Log Horizon and its manga and anime adaptations, 300,000 Japanese players of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game suddenly find themselves transported into the game's world right as the game was being updated with an expansion pack by the name of Homesteading the Noosphere (ノウアスフィアの開墾, Nōasufia no Kaikon), which the author named after Raymond's essay. The first chapter of the novel series also bears the same name.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
Calculation in kind, also known as a money-free economy
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
Eric S. Raymond (1999). "Homesteading the Noosphere". The Cathedral & the Bazaar. O'Reilly. ISBN 1-56592-724-9. hardcover, October 1999; paperback, January 2001. — also includes "The Cathedral and the Bazaar", "The Magic Cauldron" and "Revenge of the Hackers"
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
|
||||
The essay readable on the web, including a revision-history, 1998–2000.
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Houben-Weyl Methods of Organic Chemistry"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houben-Weyl_Methods_of_Organic_Chemistry"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:21.579483+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Houben-Weyl Methods of Organic Chemistry (Ger. Methoden der Organischen Chemie) established in 1909 by the German chemist Theodor Weyl, is a classic chemistry text. It consisted initially of two volumes and covered literature published as early as 1834. Heinrich J. Houben revised and reissued it in 1913. It is considered one of the most significant resources for chemists.
|
||||
Up to the 4th edition the work was published in German by Thieme from 1952 to 1987, with supplementary volumes published between 1982 and 1999, some of them (from 1990 on) in English. It consists of 16 volumes, some of which are further divided. Overall, the 4th edition consists of 90 individual books.
|
||||
A new English-language edition was published by Thieme from 2000 to 2010 as Science of Synthesis in 48 volumes. It is constantly updated.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
24
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Data_Happened-0.md
Normal file
24
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Data_Happened-0.md
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "How Data Happened"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Data_Happened"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:36:13.133895+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
How Data Happened: A History from the Age of Reason to the Age of Algorithms is a 2023 non-fiction book written by Columbia University professors Chris Wiggins and Matthew L. Jones. The book explores the history of data and statistics from the end of the 18th century to the present day.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Content ==
|
||||
The book starts at the end of the 18th century, when European states began tabulating physical resources, and ends at the present day, when algorithms manipulate our personal information as a commodity. It looks at the rise of data and statistics, and how early statistical methods were used to justify eugenics, quantify supposed racial differences, and develop military and industrial applications. The authors also discuss the impact of the internet and e-commerce on data collection, the rise of data science, and the consequences of government-run surveillance systems collecting vast amounts of personal data for customized, targeted advertising. They emphasize the importance of privacy and democracy and propose remedies to the problems caused by mass data collection, including stronger regulation of the tech industry and collective action by its employees. The book is a historical analysis that provides context for understanding the debates surrounding data and its control.
|
||||
The book has 336 pages and was published in 2023 by W. W. Norton & Company.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
The wild evolution of data science and how to unpack it, book excerpt on Big Think
|
||||
From Eugenics to Targeted Advertising: The Dark Role of Data in Sorting Humanity, book excerpt on Literary Hub
|
||||
21
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inorganic_Syntheses-0.md
Normal file
21
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inorganic_Syntheses-0.md
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Inorganic Syntheses"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inorganic_Syntheses"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:24.204524+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Inorganic Syntheses is a book series which aims to publish "detailed and foolproof" procedures for the synthesis of inorganic compounds. Although this series of books are edited, they usually are referenced like a journal, without mentioning the names of the checkers (referees) or the editor. A similar format is usually followed for the series Organic Syntheses.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Volumes ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
Organic Syntheses
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Klaer Lightende Spiegel der Verfkonst"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaer_Lightende_Spiegel_der_Verfkonst"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:41.299403+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Klaer Lightende Spiegel der Verfkonst (literally: "clearly lighting mirror of the painting art") is a manuscript with over 700 pages of color swatches, produced in 1692 by a Dutch author from Delft known only as A. Boogert. The book is arranged according to the Aristotelian system rather than the spectrum, which had recently been described by Newton. Only one copy of the manual is known, and it is completely handwritten and hand-painted. It is kept in the Bibliothèque Méjanes in Aix-en-Provence.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
Complete book at Bibliothèque Méjanes site
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "List of books in computational geometry"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_in_computational_geometry"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:52.223614+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
This is a list of books in computational geometry.
|
||||
There are two major, largely nonoverlapping categories:
|
||||
|
||||
Combinatorial computational geometry, which deals with collections of discrete objects or defined in discrete terms: points, lines, polygons, polytopes, etc., and algorithms of discrete/combinatorial character are used
|
||||
Numerical computational geometry, also known as geometric modeling and computer-aided geometric design (CAGD), which deals with modelling of shapes of real-life objects in terms of curves and surfaces with algebraic representation.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Combinatorial computational geometry ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
=== General-purpose textbooks ===
|
||||
Franco P. Preparata; Michael Ian Shamos (1985). Computational Geometry - An Introduction. Springer-Verlag. ISBN 0-387-96131-3. 1st edition; 2nd printing, corrected and expanded, 1988: ISBN 3-540-96131-3; Russian translation, 1989: ISBN 5-03-001041-6.
|
||||
The book is the first comprehensive monograph on the level of a graduate textbook to systematically cover the fundamental aspects of the emerging discipline of computational geometry. It is written by founders of the field and the first edition covered all major developments in the preceding 10 years.
|
||||
In the aspect of comprehensiveness it was preceded only by the 1984 survey paper, Lee, D, T., Preparata, F. P.: "Computational geometry - a survey". IEEE Trans. on Computers. Vol. 33, No. 12, pp. 1072–1101 (1984). It is focused on two-dimensional problems, but also has digressions into higher dimensions.
|
||||
The initial core of the book was M.I.Shamos' doctoral dissertation, which was suggested to turn into a book by a yet another pioneer in the field, Ronald Graham.
|
||||
The introduction covers the history of the field, basic data structures, and necessary notions from the theory of computation and geometry.
|
||||
The subsequent sections cover geometric searching (point location, range searching), convex hull computation, proximity-related problems (closest points, computation and applications of the Voronoi diagram, Euclidean minimum spanning tree, triangulations, etc.), geometric intersection problems, algorithms for sets of isothetic rectangles
|
||||
Herbert Edelsbrunner (1987). Algorithms in Combinatorial Geometry. Springer-Verlag. ISBN 0-89791-517-8.
|
||||
The monograph is a rather advanced exposition of problems and approaches in computational geometry focused on the role of hyperplane arrangements, which are shown to constitute a basic underlying combinatorial-geometric structure in certain areas of the field. The primary target audience are active theoretical researchers in the field, rather than application developers. Unlike most of books in computational geometry focused on 2- and 3-dimensional problems (where most applications of computational geometry are), the book aims to treat its subject in the general multi-dimensional setting.
|
||||
Mark de Berg; Otfried Cheong; Marc van Kreveld; Mark Overmars (2008). Computational Geometry (3rd revised ed.). Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-540-77973-5. 1st edition (1997): ISBN 3-540-61270-X.
|
||||
The textbook provides an introduction to computation geometry from the point of view of practical applications. Starting with an introduction chapter, each of the 15 remaining ones formulates a real application problem, formulates an underlying geometrical problem, and discusses techniques of computational geometry useful for its solution, with algorithms provided in pseudocode. The book treats mostly 2- and 3-dimensional geometry.
|
||||
The goal of the book is to provide a comprehensive introduction into methods and approached, rather than the cutting edge of the research in the field: the presented algorithms provide transparent and reasonably efficient solutions based on fundamental "building blocks" of computational geometry.
|
||||
The book consists of the following chapters (which provide both solutions for the topic of the title and its applications): "Computational Geometry (Introduction)" "Line Segment Intersection", "Polygon Triangulation", "Linear Programming", "Orthogonal Range Searching", "Point Location", "Voronoi Diagrams", "Arrangements and Duality", "Delaunay Triangulations", "More Geometric Data Structures", "Convex Hulls", "Binary Space Partitions", "Robot Motion Planning", "Quadtrees", "Visibility Graphs", "Simplex Range Searching".
|
||||
Jean-Daniel Boissonnat; Mariette Yvinec (1998). Algorithmic Geometry. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56529-4. Translation of a 1995 French edition.
|
||||
Joseph O'Rourke (1998). Computational Geometry in C (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-64976-5.
|
||||
Satyan Devadoss; Joseph O'Rourke (2011). Discrete and Computational Geometry. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-14553-2.
|
||||
Jim Arlow (2014). Interactive Computational Geometry - A taxonomic approach. Mountain Way Limited. ISBN 978-0-9572928-2-6. 1st edition.
|
||||
This book is an interactive introduction to the fundamental algorithms of computational geometry, formatted as an interactive document viewable using software based on Mathematica.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
=== Specialized textbooks and monographs ===
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
=== References ===
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Numerical computational geometry (geometric modelling, computer-aided geometric design) ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
=== Monographs ===
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Other ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Conferences ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Paper collections ==
|
||||
"Combinatorial and Computational Geometry", eds. Jacob E. Goodman, János Pach, Emo Welzl (MSRI Publications – Volume 52), 2005, ISBN 0-521-84862-8.
|
||||
32 papers, including surveys and research articles on geometric arrangements, polytopes, packing, covering, discrete convexity, geometric algorithms and their computational complexity, and the combinatorial complexity of geometric objects.
|
||||
"Surveys on Discrete and Computational Geometry: Twenty Years Later" ("Contemporary Mathematics" series), American Mathematical Society, 2008, ISBN 0-8218-4239-0
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
List of important publications in mathematics
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
Computational Geometry Pages
|
||||
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On Vision and Colors (originally translated as On Vision and Colours; German: Ueber das Sehn und die Farben) is a treatise by Arthur Schopenhauer that was published in May 1816 when the author was 28 years old. Schopenhauer had extensive discussions with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe about the poet's Theory of Colours of 1810, in the months around the turn of the years 1813 and 1814, and initially shared Goethe's views. Their growing theoretical disagreements and Schopenhauer's criticisms made Goethe distance himself from his young collaborator. Although Schopenhauer considered his own theory superior, he would still continue to praise Goethe's work as an important introduction to his own.
|
||||
Schopenhauer tried to demonstrate physiologically that color is "specially modified activity of the retina." The initial basis for Schopenhauer's color theory comes from Goethe's chapter on physiological colors, which discusses three principal pairs of contrasting colors: red/green, orange/blue, and yellow/violet. This is in contrast to the customary emphasis on Newton's seven colors of the Newtonian spectrum. In accordance with Aristotle, Schopenhauer considered that colors arise by the mixture of shadowy, cloudy darkness with light. With white and black at each extreme of the scale, colors are arranged in a series according to the mathematical ratio between the proportions of light and darkness. Schopenhauer agreed with Goethe's claim that the eye tends toward a sum total that consists of a color plus its spectrum or afterimage. Schopenhauer arranged the colors so that the sum of any color and its complementary afterimage always equals unity. The complete activity of the retina produces white. When the activity of the retina is divided, the part of the retinal activity that is inactive and not stimulated into color can be seen as the ghostly complementary afterimage, which he and Goethe call a (physiological) spectrum.
|
||||
|
||||
== History ==
|
||||
Schopenhauer met Goethe in 1808 at his mother's parties in Weimar but Goethe then mostly ignored the young and unknown student. In November 1813, Goethe congratulated Schopenhauer on his doctoral dissertation On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason which he received as a gift. Both men shared the opinion that visual representations yielded more knowledge than did concepts. In the winter of 1813/1814, Goethe personally demonstrated his color experiments to Schopenhauer and they discussed color theory. Goethe encouraged Schopenhauer to write On Vision and Colors. Schopenhauer wrote it in a few weeks while living in Dresden in 1815. After it was published, in July 1815, Goethe rejected several of Schopenhauer's conclusions, especially as to whether white is a mixture of colors. He was also disappointed that Schopenhauer considered the whole topic of color to be a minor issue. Schopenhauer wrote as though Goethe had merely gathered data while Schopenhauer provided the actual theory. A major difference between the two men was that Goethe considered color to be an objective property of light and darkness. Schopenhauer's Kantian transcendental idealism was opposed to Goethe's realism. For Schopenhauer, color was subjective in that it exists totally in the spectator's retina. As such, it can be excited in various ways by external stimuli or internal bodily conditions. Light is only one kind of color stimulus.
|
||||
In 1830, Schopenhauer published a revision of his color theory. The title was Theoria colorum Physiologica, eademque primaria (Fundamental physiological theory of color). It appeared in Justus Radius's Scriptores ophthalmologici minores (Minor ophthalmological writings). "This is no mere translation of the first edition," he wrote, "but differs noticeably from it in form and presentation and is also amply enriched in subject matter." Because it was written in Latin, he believed that foreign readers would be able to appreciate its value.
|
||||
An improved second edition of On Vision and Colors was published in 1854. In 1870, a third edition was published, edited by Julius Frauenstädt. In 1942, an English translation by Lt. Col. E. F. J. Payne was published in Karachi, India. This translation was republished in 1994 by Berg Publishers, Inc., edited by Professor David E. Cartwright.
|
||||
|
||||
== Content ==
|
||||
|
||||
=== Preface to the second edition (the first edition had no Preface) ===
|
||||
Although this work is mainly concerned with physiology, it is of philosophical value. In gaining knowledge of the subjective nature of color, the reader will have a more profound understanding of Kant's doctrine of the a priori, subjective, intellectual forms of all knowledge. This is in opposition to contemporary realism which simply takes objective experience as positively given. Realism doesn't consider that it is through the subjective that the objective exists. The observer's brain stands like a wall between the observing subject and the real nature of things.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Introduction ===
|
||||
Goethe performed two services: (1) he freed color theory from its reliance on Newton, and (2) he provided a systematic presentation of data for a theory of color.
|
||||
Before discussing color, there are some preliminary remarks to be made regarding vision. In § 1, it is shown that the perception of externally perceived objects in space is a product of the intellect's understanding after it has been stimulated by sensation from the sense organs. These remarks are necessary in order for the reader to be convinced that colors are entirely in the eye alone and are thoroughly subjective
|
||||
|
||||
=== Chapter 1—On Vision ===
|
||||
|
||||
==== § 1 ====
|
||||
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Intuitive perception, or knowledge of an object, is intellectual, not merely sensual. The intellect's understanding regards every sense impression in the observer's body as coming from an external cause. This transition from effect to cause is knowledge of the pure understanding, not a rational conclusion or combination of concepts and judgments according to logical laws. Knowledge of an object never results from mere impression, but always from the application of the law of causality, and consequently of the understanding. The law of causality is the sole form of the understanding and the precondition of the possibility of any objective perception.
|
||||
Illusion occurs when the understanding is given uncommon sensations. If the sensations become commonplace, the illusion may disappear.
|
||||
Intellectual understanding, or knowing the objective cause of a subjective sensation, distinguishes animals from plants. All animals are able to intuitively perceive objects.
|
||||
Color is usually attributed to external bodies. However, color is actually the activity of the eye's retina. It is a sensation. The external body is perceived as the cause of the sensation of color. We say, "The body is red." In reality, though, color exists only in the retina of the eye. It is separate from the external object. Color is a mere sensation in the sense organ. The external object is perceived by the intellect's understanding as being the cause of sensations.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Chapter 2—On Colors ===
|
||||
|
||||
==== § 2 ====
|
||||
Newton, Goethe, and all other color theorists began by investigating light and colored bodies in order to find the cause of color. They should have started with an investigation of the effect, the given phenomenon, the changes in the eye, we can afterward investigate the external physical and chemical causes of those sensations.
|
||||
The eye's reaction to external stimulus is an activity, not a passive response. It is the activity of the retina. When the eye's retina receives a full impression of light, or when whiteness appears, it is fully active. When light is absent, or when blackness appears, the retina is inactive.
|
||||
|
||||
==== § 3 ====
|
||||
There are gradations to the intensity or strength of the retina's activity, or reaction to external stimulus. The undivided activity of the retina is divided into stronger or weaker degrees when stimulated by pure light or whiteness. When influenced by light, the degrees are: Light — Half Shade — Darkness. When influenced by whiteness, the degrees are: White — Gray — Black. In this way, grays are seen. The intensity or energy of the retina's activity increases as more light or whiteness stimulates the eye. These gradations are made possible by the quantitative intensive divisibility of the retina's activity.
|
||||
|
||||
==== § 4 ====
|
||||
The activity of the retina also has a quantitative extensive divisibility. The whole extent of the retina is divided into countless small juxtaposed spots or points. Each point is individually stimulated by light or whiteness and reacts separately. The eye can receive many impressions at one time, and therefore side by side.
|
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==== § 5 ====
|
||||
The qualitative division of the activity is completely different from the two quantitative divisions. It occurs when color is presented to the eye. Schopenhauer described the way in which various points or places on the retina become fatigued from being overstimulated. After staring at a black figure on a white background, the overactive and excited retinal points become exhausted and do not react to stimulation when the eye finally looks away. A ghostly appearance of a black background is seen with a light-colored figure. The retinal positions that were exhausted by the whiteness become completely inactive. The retinal positions that had been rested are now easily stimulated. This explains afterimage (physiological spectra). Both Goethe and Schopenhauer use the word "spectrum" [Spektrum], from the Latin word "spectrum" meaning "appearance" or "apparition," to designate an afterimage.
|
||||
If, instead of white, we stare at yellow, then the afterimage, or physiological color spectrum, is violet. Yellow, unlike white, does not fully stimulate and exhaust the retina's activity. Yellow partially stimulates points on the retina and leaves those points partially unstimulated. The retina's activity has been qualitatively divided and separated into two parts. The unstimulated part results in a violet afterimage. Yellow and violet are the complement of each other because together they add up to full retinal activity. Yellow is closer to white, so it activates the retina more than violet, which is closer to black.
|
||||
An orange color is not as close to white. It doesn't activate the retina as much as yellow. Orange's complement is blue, which is that much closer to white than was violet. A red color is halfway between white and black. Red's complement is green which is also halfway between white and black. With red and green, the retina's qualitatively divided activity consists of two equal halves.
|
||||
Red and green are two completely equal qualitative halves of the retina's activity. Orange is 2/3 of this activity, and its complement, blue, is only 1/3. Yellow is ¾ of the full activity, and its complement, violet, is only ¼.
|
||||
The range of all colors contains a continuous series of innumerable shades that blend into each other. Why are red, green, orange, blue, yellow, and violet given names and considered to be the most important? Because they represent the retina's activity in the simplest fractions or ratios. The same is true of the seven keynotes in the musical diatonic scale: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti. Color is the qualitatively divided activity of the retina. The retina has a natural tendency to display its activity entirely. After the retina has been partly stimulated, its remaining complement is active as the physiological spectrum or afterimage. In this way, the retina is fully and wholly active.
|
||||
Knowledge of these six colors is inborn in the mind. They are ideal and are never found pure in nature, in the same way that regular geometrical figures are innate. We have them a priori in our minds as standards to which we compare actual colors. These three pairs of colors are pure, subjective Epicurean anticipations because they are expressed in simple, rational, arithmetical ratios similar to the seven tones of the musical scale and their rational vibration numbers.
|
||||
Black and white are not colors because they are not fractions and represent no qualitative division of the retina's activity. Colors appear in pairs as the union of a color and its complement. Newton's division into seven colors is absurd because the sum of all basic colors cannot be an odd number.
|
||||
|
||||
==== § 6 ====
|
||||
The qualitatively divided activity of the retina is a polarity, like electricity and magnetism. The retina's polarity is successive, in time, whereas the polarity of the others is simultaneous, in space. The retina's activity, like Yin and Yang, is split into two parts which condition each other and seek to reunite. Red, orange, and yellow could be conventionally designated by a plus sign. Green, blue, and violet could be the negative poles.
|
||||
|
||||
==== § 7 ====
|
||||
According to Goethe, color is like shade or gray in that it is darker than white and brighter than black. The difference between grays and colors, though, is as follows. Light is activity of the retina. Darkness is retinal inactivity. Grays appear when the intensity or strength of the retina's activity is lessened. Colors appear when the whole activity of the retina is divided into partial complementary poles according to ratios. With the merely quantitative, intensive division of the retina's activity, there is only a gradual (by degrees) diminution of the intensity or strength of the retina's full activity. No fractional division of activity in ratios occurs. This lessening of strength by small degrees results in gray shades. However, with the qualitative fractional division of the activity of the retina, the activity of the part that appears as color is necessarily conditioned by the inactivity of the complementary fractional part. The polar contrast between the active and inactive parts results in color. The vivid partial activity of the stimulated retinal spot is supported by that same spot's partial inactivity. Every color's darkness appears as its afterimage, or spectrum. Conversely, when looking at an afterimage, or physiological spectrum, the previously existing color is the darkening factor.
|
||||
25
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||||
==== § 8 ====
|
||||
Newton recognized that color is darker than white or light. He erroneously investigated light instead of the eye, the objective instead of the subjective. In so doing, he asserted that light rays are composed of seven colored rays. These seven were like the seven intervals of the musical scale. Schopenhauer claimed that there are only four prismatic colors: violet, blue, yellow, and orange. The rays described by Newton are supposed to be variously colored according to laws that have nothing to do with the eye. Instead of Newton's division of sunshine into seven rays, Schopenhauer claimed that color was a division of the eye's retina into two complementary parts. Like the Delphic Oracle, Copernicus, and Kant, Schopenhauer concentrated on the subjective rather than the objective, on the observer's experience rather than the observed object. In general, he believed, the subjective viewpoint leads to correct results.
|
||||
Colors are not in light. Colors are nothing more than the eye's activity, appearing in polar contrasts. Philosophers have always surmised that color belongs to the eye rather than to things. Locke, for example, claimed that color was at the head of his list of secondary qualities.
|
||||
Newton's theory has color as an occult quality. Schopenhauer's theory claims to be more explanatory. He said that each color is a definite + or − side of the division of the retina's activity, expressed as a fraction that reflects the color's sensation.
|
||||
|
||||
==== § 9 ====
|
||||
When the entire activity of the eye is completely qualitatively partitioned, the color and its spectrum (afterimage) appear with maximum energy as being vivid, bright, dazzling, and brilliant. If the division is not total, however, part of the retina can remain undivided. A union of the quantitative intensive division with the qualitative division of the retina occurs. If the remainder is active, then the color and its spectrum are lost as they fade into white. If the remainder is inactive, then the color and its spectrum are lost as they darken into black. If the remainder is only partially inactive, then the color loses its energy by mixing with gray.
|
||||
|
||||
==== § 10 ====
|
||||
If the activity of the retina is divided without a remainder, or if the remainder is active, then a color and its spectrum (afterimage) are bright or pale. When such a color and its spectrum are united, then the eye sees pure light or white. For example, the mixture of bright or pale red and green on the same retinal spot results in the impression there of light or white. White cannot be produced by mixing colored pigments. With colors from a prism, however, the production of white can be demonstrated by using a mixture of colored light from each of the three main pairs of complementary colors: red – green, orange – blue, or yellow – violet. White can be produced from two complementary opposite colors when both of the external causes of the colors excite the same retinal place at the same time. Newton claimed that white could be produced by the aggregation of his seven prismatic colors. He erroneously considered color to be in light instead of in the eye. White is the result of the combination of two opposite colors because their inactivity, or darkness, is removed when the two active parts of the retina combine.
|
||||
According to Newton, refracted light must appear colored. With the achromatic refractor, however, this is not the case. Newtonians explain this by saying that the achromatic refractor's crown glass and flint glass refract light as a whole with equal intensity but disperse individual colors differently. According to Schopenhauer, achromatism results when refraction occurs in one direction in the concave lens and in another direction in the convex lens. A blue band then overlaps an orange band while a violet edge covers the yellow. The qualitatively divided retina (color) is thus reunited in full activity, resulting in achromatism (the absence of color).
|
||||
If an observer looks through a prism at a white disk on a black background, two subsidiary images are seen. This is due to double refraction as the light bends twice, when entering and leaving the prism. With this double refraction, the two subsidiary images appear as one above and one below the main image. The distance of the two subsidiary images from the main image corresponds to the Newtonians' dispersion. The wideness or narrowness of the colored bands are, however, nonessential properties that differ according to the type of light-refracting substance that is used. The top of the upper image is violet. Below the violet is blue. The bottom of the lower image is orange. Above the orange is yellow. In this way, along with the white disk and the black background, four prismatic colors appear: violet, blue, yellow, and orange. This is in disagreement with Newton's claim that there are seven prismatic colors. As the upper image overlaps black, it is seen as violet. Where it overlaps white, it is seen as blue. As the lower image overlaps black, it is seen as orange. Where it overlaps white, it is seen as yellow. This shows how colors are produced when the image mixes with either lightness or darkness, in accordance with Goethe's assertions.
|
||||
|
||||
==== § 11 ====
|
||||
In the operation of a healthy eye, three kinds of division of retinal activity often occur at once. (1) The quantitative intensive division unites with the qualitative division resulting in a loss of color energy and a deviation toward paleness or darkness; (2) After being excited by an external stimulant, the quantitative extensive division unites with the qualitative division resulting in the retina being covered by many various juxtaposed spots of color sensation; (3) When the stimulation ceases, an afterimage (physiological spectrum) appears on each retinal spot.
|
||||
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|
||||
|
||||
==== § 12 ====
|
||||
Afterimages (spectra) appear after a mechanical shock to the eye. The eye's activity is convulsively divided. Transitory pathological spectra appear from glare or dazzle. The retina's activity is disorganized from over-stimulation. A dazzled eye sees red when looking at brightness and green when looking into darkness. The retina's activity is forcefully divided by the powerful stimulation. When the eye strains to see in dim light, the retina is voluntarily activated and intensively divided. Blue eyeglasses counter the effect of orange candlelight and produce the effect of daylight. An additional proof of the subjective nature of color, namely that it is a function of the eye itself and is only secondarily related to external objects, is given by the daguerreotype. It objectively shows that color is not essential to the appearance of an object. Also, people who are color blind would see color if it was in the object and not in the eye.
|
||||
|
||||
==== § 13 ====
|
||||
Colors and the laws by which they appear reside within the eye. The external cause of color is a stimulus which excites the retina and separates its polarity. Goethe had organized color into three classes: physiological, physical, and chemical. He proposed that the external causes of color are physical colors and chemical colors.
|
||||
|
||||
===== Physical colors =====
|
||||
Physical colors are temporary. They exist when light combines with cloudy transparent or translucent media, such as smoke, fog, or a glass prism. They are comprehensible because we know that they result from part of the qualitative division of retinal activity. Light is the external physical stimulus of the retina's activity. The more that we know about the effect (color as physiological fact), the more we can know a priori about its external cause. (1) The external stimulus can only excite color, which is the retina's polar division. (2) There are no individual colors. Colors come in pairs because each color is the qualitative part of the retina's full activity. The remaining part is the color's complementary color. (3) There are an infinite number of colors. Three pairs are distinguished by names of their own, however, because the retina's activity is bipartitioned in a rational proportion that consists of simple numbers. (4) A color's external cause, acting as a stimulus, must be capable of being changed and infinitely modified as much as the retina's activity can be infinitely divided qualitatively. (5) In the eye, color is a cloudy shade of white. This shadiness is the retina's resting part while the other retinal part is active. Newton's theory asserts that each prismatic color is 1/7 of the whole of light. If an infinite number, instead of seven, of light rays is assumed, then each color would be an infinitely small fraction of the whole of light. Schopenhauer's theory, however, claims that yellow is ¾ as bright as white. Orange is 2/3, red is ½, green is ½, blue is 1/3, and violet is ¼ as bright as white. The external cause of color is a diminished light that imparts just as much light to the color as it imparts darkness to the color's complement. Unlike Goethe, for Schopenhauer the primary phenomenon, or limit of explanation, is not an external cause, but the "organic capacity of the retina to let its nervous activity appear in two qualitatively opposite halves, sometimes equal, sometimes unequal...."
|
||||
|
||||
===== Chemical colors =====
|
||||
Chemical colors are more durable properties of an external object, such as the red color of an apple. A chemical color is incomprehensible because we don't know its cause. Its appearance is only known from experience and it is not an essential part of the object. Chemical colors result from changes in an object's surface. A slight change in the surface may result in a different color. Color, therefore, is not an essential property of an object. This confirms the subjective nature of color.
|
||||
|
||||
==== § 14 ====
|
||||
Schopenhauer said that he didn't have to worry about his discoveries being attributed to previous thinkers. "For, prior to 1816, never at any time did it occur to anyone to regard color ... as the halved activity of the retina, and accordingly to assign to each individual color its definite numerical fraction — a fraction that, with another color, goes to make up unity, this unity representing white or the full activity of the retina." Schopenhauer criticized scientists for thinking that color exists in external objects, instead of in the spectator's eye. Color as vibrations of an ether was rejected by him. Fraunhofer lines, according to Schopenhauer, do not exist in light itself. They result from the edges of the slit that light passes through.
|
||||
|
||||
== Letter to Eastlake ==
|
||||
In 1841, Schopenhauer wrote a letter in English to Charles Lock Eastlake whose English translation of Goethe's book on colors had recently been reviewed in several journals. Schopenhauer included a copy of his On Vision and Colors with the letter. He briefly communicated the main point of his book as follows:
|
||||
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|
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||||
...if, bearing in mind the numerical fractions, (of the activity of the Retina) by which I express the 6 chief colours, You contemplate these colours singly, then You will find that only by this, and by no other theory on earth, You will come to understand the peculiar sensation, which every colour produces in your eye, and thereby get an insight into the very essence of every colour, and of colour in general. Likewise my theory alone gives the true sense in which the notion of complementary colours is to be taken, viz: as having no reference to light, but to the Retina, and not being a redintegration [restoration] of white light, but of the full action of the Retina, which by every colour undergoes a bipartition either in yellow (3/4) and violet (1/4) or in orange (2/3) and blue (1/3) or in red (1/2) and green (1/2). This is in short the great mystery.
|
||||
Here he explained that color results from the way that the retina reacts to sensation. The cause may be light or other pressure on the retina. The fractions of two complementary colors sum to unity. White is undivided, whole retinal activity.
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
Ludwig Wittgenstein and Erwin Schrödinger were strongly influenced by Schopenhauer's works and both seriously investigated color theory. Philipp Mainländer considered the work to be among the most important things ever written. Johannes Itten based his work on Schopenhauer's theory of color.
|
||||
The mathematician Brouwer wrote: "Newton's theory of color analyzed light rays in their medium, but Goethe and Schopenhauer, more sensitive to the truth, considered color to be the polar splitting by the human eye."
|
||||
The physicist Ernst Mach praised that "men such as Goethe, Schopenhauer" had started to "investigate the sensations themselves" on the first page of his work Die Analyse der Empfindungen und das Verhältnis des Physischen zum Psychischen.
|
||||
According to Rudolf Arnheim, Schopenhauer's "...basic conception of complementary pairs in retinal functioning strikingly anticipates the color theory of Ewald Hering." Nietzsche noted that the Bohemian physiologist, Professor Czermak, acknowledged Schopenhauer's relation to the Young-Helmholtz theory of color. Bosanquet claimed that Schopenhauer's color theory was in accord with scientific research.
|
||||
|
||||
== Notes ==
|
||||
|
||||
== Bibliography ==
|
||||
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The Oxford Chemistry Primers are a series of short texts providing accounts of a range of essential topics in chemistry and chemical engineering written for undergraduate study. The first primer Organic Synthesis: The Roles of Boron and Silicon was published by Oxford University Press in 1991. As of 2017 there are 100 titles in the series, written by a wide range of authors. The editors are Steve G. Davies (Organic Chemistry), Richard G. Compton (Physical Chemistry), John Evans (Inorganic Chemistry) and Lynn Gladden (Chemical Engineering).
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== Titles ==
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== References ==
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The Surya Siddhanta (IAST: Sūrya Siddhānta; lit. 'Sun Treatise') is a Sanskrit treatise in Indian astronomy, attributed to Lāṭadeva, a student of Aryabhatta I, and dated to somewhere between the end of the 4th and 9th centuries, and comprises fourteen chapters. The Surya Siddhanta describes the author's rules, within a geocentric model, to calculate the motions of the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, along with his estimate of their diameters, and the circumference of their assumed circular orbits around the Earth. The text is known from a 15th-century CE palm-leaf manuscript, and several newer manuscripts. It was composed or revised probably c. 800 CE from an earlier text also called the Surya Siddhanta. The Surya Siddhanta text is composed of verses made up of two lines, each broken into two halves, or pãds, of eight syllables each.
|
||||
The second verse of the first chapter of the Surya Siddhanta attributes the words to an emissary of the solar deity of Hindu god, Surya, as recounted to an asura called Maya at the end of Satya Yuga, the first golden age from Hindu texts, around two million years ago.
|
||||
The text asserts, according to Markanday and Srivatsava, that the Earth is of a spherical shape. It treats Earth as stationary globe around which then Sun and other planets orbit, and makes no mention of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. The calculations uses Yojana, a unit estimated as between 8 – 15 km. Though astronomical dimensions had already been estimated with more accuracy by ancient Greek astronomers such as Aristarchus (c. 310–230 BCE) and Eratosthenes (c. 276–194 BCE), Surya Siddhanta calculated the Earth's diameter to be 1,600 Yojana (12,800 - 24,000 km, the known measure being 12,756 km), the diameter of the Moon as 480 Yojana (3,840 - 7,200 km, the known measure being 3,475 km), the diameter of the Sun as 6,500 Yojana (52,000 - 97,509 km, the known measure being ~ 1,392,000 km) and the distance between the Moon and the Earth to be 51,600 Yojana (412,800 - 774,000 km, the known elliptical range being 221,500–252,700 miles (356,500–406,700 kilometres). The text is known for some of the earliest known discussions of fractions and trigonometric functions.
|
||||
The Surya Siddhanta is one of several astronomy-related Hindu texts. It represents a functional system that made reasonably accurate predictions. The text was influential on the solar year computations of the luni-solar Hindu calendar. The text was translated into Arabic and was influential in medieval Islamic geography. The Surya Siddhanta has the largest number of commentators among all the astronomical texts written in India. It includes information about the mean orbital parameters of the planets, such as the number of mean revolutions per Mahayuga, the longitudinal changes of the orbits, and also includes supporting evidence and calculation methods.
|
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||||
== Textual history ==
|
||||
|
||||
In a work called the Pañca-siddhāntikā composed in the sixth century by Varāhamihira, five astronomical treatises are named and summarised: Paulīśa-siddhānta, Romaka-siddhānta, Vasiṣṭha-siddhānta, Sūrya-siddhānta, and Paitāmaha-siddhānta. Most scholars place the surviving version of the text variously from the 4th century to the 5th century CE.
|
||||
According to John Bowman, the version of the text existed between 350 and 400 CE wherein it referenced fractions and trigonometric functions, but the text was a living document and revised through about the 10th century. One of the evidence for the Surya Siddhanta being a living text is the work of medieval Indian scholar Utpala, who cites and then quotes ten verses from a version of Surya Siddhanta, but these ten verses are not found in any surviving manuscripts of the text. According to Kim Plofker, large portions of the more ancient Sūrya-siddhānta was incorporated into the Panca siddhantika text, and a new version of the Surya Siddhanta was likely revised and probably composed around 800 CE. Some scholars refer to Panca siddhantika as the old Surya Siddhanta and date it to 505 CE.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Vedic influence ===
|
||||
The Surya Siddhanta is a text on astronomy and time keeping, an idea that appears much earlier as the field of Jyotisha (Vedanga) of the Vedic period. The field of Jyotisha deals with ascertaining time, particularly forecasting auspicious dates and times for Vedic rituals. Vedic sacrifices state that the ancient Vedic texts describe four measures of time – savana, solar, lunar and sidereal, as well as twenty seven constellations using Taras (stars). According to mathematician and classicist David Pingree, in the Hindu text Atharvaveda (~1000 BCE or older) the idea already appears of twenty eight constellations and movement of astronomical bodies.
|
||||
According to Pingree, the influence may have flowed the other way initially, then flowed into India after the arrival of Darius and the Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley about 500 BCE. The mathematics and devices for time keeping mentioned in these ancient Sanskrit texts, proposes Pingree, such as the water clock may also have thereafter arrived in India from Mesopotamia. However, Yukio Ôhashi considers this proposal as incorrect, suggesting instead that the Vedic timekeeping efforts, for forecasting appropriate time for rituals, must have begun much earlier and the influence may have flowed from India to Mesopotamia. Ôhashi states that it is incorrect to assume that the number of civil days in a year equal 365 in both Indian (Hindu) and Egyptian–Persian year. Further, adds Ôhashi, the Mesopotamian formula is different than Indian formula for calculating time, each can only work for their respective latitude, and either would make major errors in predicting time and calendar in the other region.
|
||||
Kim Plofker states that while a flow of timekeeping ideas from either side is plausible, each may have instead developed independently, because the loan-words typically seen when ideas migrate are missing on both sides as far as words for various time intervals and techniques.
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=== Greek influence ===
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It is hypothesized that contacts between the ancient Indian scholarly tradition and Hellenistic Greece via the Indo-Greek Kingdom after the Indian campaign of Alexander the Great, specifically regarding the work of Hipparchus (2nd-century BCE), explain some similarities between Surya Siddhanta and Greek astronomy in the Hellenistic period. For example, Surya Siddhanta provides table of sines function which parallel the Hipparchian table of chords, though the Indian calculations are more accurate and detailed. According to Alan Cromer, the Greek influence most likely arrived in India by about 100 BCE. The Indians adopted the Hipparchus system, according to Cromer, and it remained that simpler system rather than those made by Ptolemy in the 2nd century.
|
||||
The influence of Greek ideas on early medieval era Indian astronomical theories, particularly zodiac symbols (astrology), is broadly accepted by the Western scholars. According to Pingree, the 2nd-century CE cave inscriptions of Nasik mention sun, moon and five planets in the same order as found in Babylon, but "there is no hint, however, that the Indian had learned a method of computing planetary positions in this period". In the 2nd-century CE, a scholar named Yavanesvara translated a Greek astrological text, and another unknown individual translated a second Greek text into Sanskrit. Thereafter started the diffusion of Greek and Babylonian ideas on astronomy and astrology into India. The other evidence of European influential on the Indian thought is Romaka Siddhanta, a title of one of the Siddhanta texts contemporary to Surya Siddhanta, a name that betrays its origin and probably was derived from a translation of a European text by Indian scholars in Ujjain, then the capital of an influential central Indian large kingdom.
|
||||
According to mathematician and historian of measurement John Roche, the astronomical and mathematical methods developed by Greeks related arcs to chords of spherical trigonometry. The Indian mathematical astronomers, in their texts such as the Surya Siddhanta, developed other linear measures of angles, made their calculations differently, "introduced the versine, which is the difference between the radius and cosine, and discovered various trigonometrical identities". For instance "where the Greeks had adopted 60 relative units for the radius, and 360 for circumference", the Indians chose 3,438 units and 60x360 for the circumference thereby calculating the "ratio of circumference to diameter [pi, π] of about 3.1414".
|
||||
The Surya Siddhanta was one of the two books in Sanskrit that were translated into Arabic in the later half of the eighth century during the reign of Abbasid caliph Al-Mansur.
|
||||
|
||||
== Importance in history of science ==
|
||||
|
||||
The tradition of Hellenistic astronomy ended in the West after Late Antiquity. According to Cromer, the Surya Siddhanta and other Indian texts reflect the primitive state of Greek science, nevertheless played an important part in the history of science, through its translation in Arabic and stimulating the Arabic sciences. According to a study by Dennis Duke that compares Greek models with Indian models based on the oldest Indian manuscripts such as the Surya Siddhanta with fully described models, the Greek influence on Indian astronomy is strongly likely to be pre-Ptolemaic.
|
||||
The Surya Siddhanta was one of the two books in Sanskrit translated into Arabic in the later half of the eighth century during the reign of Abbasid caliph Al-Mansur. According to Muzaffar Iqbal, this translation and that of Aryabhatta was of considerable influence on geographic, astronomy and related Islamic scholarship.
|
||||
|
||||
== Contents ==
|
||||
|
||||
The contents of the Surya Siddhanta is written in classical Indian poetry tradition, where complex ideas are expressed lyrically with a rhyming meter in the form of a terse shloka. This method of expressing and sharing knowledge made it easier to remember, recall, transmit and preserve knowledge. However, this method also meant secondary rules of interpretation, because numbers don't have rhyming synonyms. The creative approach adopted in the Surya Siddhanta was to use symbolic language with double meanings. For example, instead of one, the text uses a word that means moon because there is one moon. To the skilled reader, the word moon means the number one. The entire table of trigonometric functions, sine tables, steps to calculate complex orbits, predict eclipses and keep time are thus provided by the text in a poetic form. This cryptic approach offers greater flexibility for poetic construction.
|
||||
The Surya Siddhanta thus consists of cryptic rules in Sanskrit verse. It is a compendium of astronomy that is easier to remember, transmit and use as reference or aid for the experienced, but does not aim to offer commentary, explanation or proof. The text has 14 chapters and 500 shlokas. It is one of the eighteen astronomical siddhanta (treatises), but thirteen of the eighteen are believed to be lost to history. The Surya Siddhanta text has survived since the ancient times, has been the best known and the most referred astronomical text in the Indian tradition.
|
||||
The fourteen chapters of the Surya Siddhanta are as follows, per the much cited Burgess translation:
|
||||
|
||||
Of the Mean Motions of the Planets
|
||||
On the True Places of the Planets
|
||||
Of Direction, Place and Time
|
||||
Of Eclipses, and Especially of Lunar Eclipses
|
||||
Of Parallax in a Solar Eclipse
|
||||
The Projection of Eclipses
|
||||
Of Planetary Conjunctions
|
||||
Of the Asterisms
|
||||
Of Heliacal (Sun) Risings and Settings
|
||||
The Moon's Risings and Settings, Her Cusps
|
||||
On Certain Malignant Aspects of the Sun and Moon
|
||||
Cosmogony, Geography, and Dimensions of the Creation
|
||||
Of the Armillary Sphere and other Instruments
|
||||
Of the Different Modes of Reckoning Time
|
||||
The methods for computing time using the shadow cast by a gnomon are discussed in both Chapters 3 and 13.
|
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=== Description of Time ===
|
||||
The author of Surya Siddhanta defines time as of two types: the first which is continuous and endless, destroys all animate and inanimate objects and second is time which can be known. This latter type is further defined as having two types: the first is Murta (Measureable) and Amurta (immeasureable because it is too small or too big). The time Amurta is a time that begins with an infinitesimal portion of time (Truti) and Murta is a time that begins with 4-second time pulses called Prana as described in the table below. The further description of Amurta time is found in Puranas where as Surya Siddhanta sticks with measurable time.
|
||||
|
||||
The text measures a savana day from sunrise to sunrise. Thirty of these savana days make a savana month. A solar (saura) month starts with the entrance of the sun into a zodiac sign, thus twelve months make a year.
|
||||
The text further states there are nine modes of measuring time. "Of four modes, namely solar, lunar, sidereal, and civil time, practical use is made among men; by that of Jupiter is to be determined the year of the cycle of sixty years; of the rest, no use is ever made".
|
||||
|
||||
=== North pole star and South pole star ===
|
||||
Surya Siddhanta asserts that there are two pole stars, one each at north and south celestial pole. Surya Siddhanta chapter 12 verse 43 description is as following:
|
||||
|
||||
मेरोरुभयतो मध्ये ध्रुवतारे नभ:स्थिते।
|
||||
निरक्षदेशसंस्थानामुभये क्षितिजाश्रिये॥१२:४३॥
|
||||
|
||||
This translates as "On both sides of the Meru (i.e. the north and south poles of the earth) the two polar stars are situated in the heaven at their zenith. These two stars are in the horizon of the cities situated on the equinoctial regions".
|
||||
|
||||
=== The Sine table ===
|
||||
|
||||
The Surya Siddhanta provides methods of calculating the sine values in chapter 2. It divides the quadrant of a circle with radius 3438 into 24 equal segments or sines as described in the table. In modern-day terms, each of these 24 segments has angle of 3.75°.
|
||||
|
||||
The 1st order difference is the value by which each successive sine increases from the previous and similarly the 2nd order difference is the increment in the 1st order difference values. Burgess says, it is remarkable to see that the 2nd order differences increase as the sines and each, in fact, is about 1/225th part of the corresponding sine.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Calculation of tilt of Earth's axis (Obliquity) ===
|
||||
The tilt of the ecliptic varies between 22.1° to 24.5° and is currently 23.5°. Following the sine tables and methods of calculating the sines, Surya Siddhanta also attempts to calculate the Earth's tilt of contemporary times as described in chapter 2 and verse 28, the obliquity of the Earth's axis, the verse says "The sine of greatest declination is 1397; by this multiply any sine, and divide by radius; the arc corresponding to the result is said to be the declination". The greatest declination is the inclination of the plane of the ecliptic. With radius of 3438 and sine of 1397, the corresponding angle is 23.975° or 23° 58' 30.65" which is approximated to be 24°.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Planets and their characteristics ===
|
||||
|
||||
The text treats earth as a stationary globe around which sun, moon and five planets orbit. It makes no mention of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. It presents mathematical formulae to calculate the orbits, diameters, predict their future locations and cautions that the minor corrections are necessary over time to the formulae for the various astronomical bodies.
|
||||
The text describes some of its formulae with the use of very large numbers for "divya-yuga", stating that at the end of this yuga, Earth and all astronomical bodies return to the same starting point and the cycle of existence repeats again. These very large numbers based on divya-yuga, when divided and converted into decimal numbers for each planet, give reasonably accurate sidereal periods when compared to modern era western calculations.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Calendar ===
|
||||
|
||||
The solar part of the luni-solar Hindu calendar is based on the Surya Siddhanta. The various old and new versions of Surya Siddhanta manuscripts yield the same solar calendar. According to J. Gordon Melton, both the Hindu and Buddhist calendars that are in use in South and Southeast Asia are rooted in this text, but the regional calendars adapted and modified them over time.
|
||||
The Surya Siddhanta calculates the solar year to be 365 days 6 hours 12 minutes and 36.56 seconds. On average, according to the text, the lunar month equals 27 days 7 hours 39 minutes 12.63 seconds. It states that the lunar month varies over time, and this needs to be factored in for accurate time keeping.
|
||||
According to Whitney, the Surya Siddhanta calculations were tolerably accurate and achieved predictive usefulness. In Chapter 1 of Surya Siddhanta, "the Hindu year is too long by nearly three minutes and a half; but the moon's revolution is right within a second; those of Mercury, Venus and Mars within a few minutes; that of Jupiter within six or seven hours; that of Saturn within six days and a half".
|
||||
The Surya Siddhanta was one of the two books in Sanskrit translated into Arabic during the reign of 'Abbasid caliph al-Mansur (r. 754–775 CE). According to Muzaffar Iqbal, this translation and that of Aryabhata was of considerable influence on geographic, astronomy and related Islamic scholarship.
|
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== Editions ==
|
||||
The Súrya-Siddhánta, an antient system of Hindu astronomy ed. FitzEdward Hall and Bápú Deva Śástrin (1859).
|
||||
Translation of the Sûrya-Siddhânta: A text-book of Hindu astronomy, with notes and an appendix by Ebenezer Burgess Originally published: Journal of the American Oriental Society 6 (1860) 141–498. Commentary by Burgess is much larger than his translation.
|
||||
Surya-Siddhanta: A Text Book of Hindu Astronomy translated by Ebenezer Burgess, ed. Phanindralal Gangooly (1989/1997) with a 45-page commentary by P. C. Sengupta (1935).
|
||||
Translation of the Surya Siddhanta by Bapu Deva Sastri (1861) ISBN 3-7648-1334-2, ISBN 978-3-7648-1334-5. Only a few notes. Translation of Surya Siddhanta occupies first 100 pages; rest is a translation of the Siddhanta Siromani by Lancelot Wilkinson.
|
||||
|
||||
== Commentaries ==
|
||||
The historical popularity of Surya Siddhanta is attested by the existence of at least 26 commentaries, plus another 8 anonymous commentaries. Some of the Sanskrit-language commentaries include the following; nearly all the commentators have re-arranged and modified the text:
|
||||
|
||||
Surya-siddhanta-tika (1178) by Mallikarjuna Suri
|
||||
Surya-siddhanta-bhashya (1185) by Chandeshvara, a Maithila Brahmana
|
||||
Vasanarnava (c. 1375–1400) by Maharajadhiraja Madana-pala of Taka family
|
||||
Surya-siddhanta-vivarana (1432) by Parameshvara of Kerala
|
||||
Kalpa-valli (1472) by Yallaya of Andhra-desha
|
||||
Subodhini (1472) by Ramakrishna Aradhya
|
||||
Surya-siddhanta-vivarana (1572) by Bhudhara of Kampilya
|
||||
Kamadogdhri (1599) by Tamma Yajvan of Paragipuri
|
||||
Gudhartha-prakashaka (1603) by Ranganatha of Kashi
|
||||
Saura-bhashya (1611) by Nrsimha of Kashi
|
||||
Gahanartha-prakasha (IAST: Gūḍhārthaprakāśaka, 1628) by Vishvanatha of Kashi
|
||||
Saura-vasana (after 1658) by Kamalakara of Kashi
|
||||
Kiranavali (1719) by Dadabhai, a Chittpavana Brahmana
|
||||
Surya-siddhanta-tika (date unknown) by Kama-bhatta of southern India
|
||||
Ganakopakarini (date unknown) by Chola Vipashchit of southern India
|
||||
Gurukataksha (date unknown) by Bhuti-vishnu of southern India
|
||||
Mallikarjuna Suri had written a Telugu language commentary on the text before composing the Sanskrit-language Surya-siddhanta-tika in 1178. Kalpakurti Allanarya-suri wrote another Telugu language commentary on the text, known from a manuscript copied in 1869.
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
Hindu units of measurement
|
||||
Indian science and technology
|
||||
Adityas
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
=== Bibliography ===
|
||||
Gangooly, Phanindralal (1989). Sûrya-Siddhânta: A Text-book of Hindu Astronomy. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. ISBN 9788120806122.
|
||||
Pingree, David (1973). "The Mesopotamian Origin of Early Indian Mathematical Astronomy". Journal for the History of Astronomy. 4 (1). SAGE: 1–12. Bibcode:1973JHA.....4....1P. doi:10.1177/002182867300400102. S2CID 125228353.
|
||||
Plofker, Kim (2009). Mathematics in India. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-12067-6.
|
||||
Pingree, David (1981). Jyotihśāstra : Astral and Mathematical Literature. Otto Harrassowitz. ISBN 978-3447021654.
|
||||
K. V. Sarma (1997), "Suryasiddhanta", Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures edited by Helaine Selin, Springer, ISBN 978-0-7923-4066-9
|
||||
Yukio Ôhashi (1999). "The Legends of Vasiṣṭha – A Note on the Vedāṅga Astronomy". In Johannes Andersen (ed.). Highlights of Astronomy, Volume 11B. Springer Science. ISBN 978-0-7923-5556-4.
|
||||
Yukio Ôhashi (1993). "Development of Astronomical Observations in Vedic and post-Vedic India". Indian Journal of History of Science. 28 (3).
|
||||
Maurice Winternitz (1963). History of Indian Literature, Volume 1. Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 978-81-208-0056-4. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
|
||||
|
||||
== Further reading ==
|
||||
Victor J. Katz. A History of Mathematics: An Introduction, 1998.
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
|
||||
Ahargana - The Astronomy of the Hindu Calendar Explains the various calendric elements of the Hindu calendar by means of astronomical simulations created using Stellarium. The definitions of the various calendric elements are obtained from Surya Siddhantha.
|
||||
Surya Siddhantha Planetary Model A geometric model that illustrates the Surya Siddhantha model of the orbital movement of the planets. In this model, the asterism are not stationary but exhibit high-speed movement which is faster than the planets. As a result, the planets seem to "fall behind" thus creating orbital movement.
|
||||
Surya Siddhanta Sanskrit text in Devanagari
|
||||
Remarks on the Astronomy of the Brahmins, John Playfair
|
||||
Online Surya Siddhanta panchanga
|
||||
(Archive)
|
||||
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|
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chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talking_About_Life"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:34:47.176576+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Talking About Life: Conversations on Astrobiology is a non-fiction book edited by astronomer Chris Impey that consists of interviews with three dozen leading experts on the subject of astrobiology. The subject matter ranges from the nature and limits of life on Earth to the current search for exoplanets and the prospects of intelligent life in the universe. The book was published as a hardcover by Cambridge University Press in 2010.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Summary ==
|
||||
Talking About Life: Conversations on Astrobiology is a book of interviews between astronomer Chris Impey and leading researchers in the effort to understand life on Earth and discover habitable worlds and biology beyond Earth. The book is a snapshot of a fast-moving interdisciplinary field, with a conversational tone, where researchers describe what they do in their own words and convey the excitement of addressing fundamental questions about the universe.
|
||||
The first section has a range of perspectives on the general topic of life in the universe. Timothy Ferris, noted writer and journalist, talks about being involved in the planning for the Voyager record and on astrobiology in the popular culture. Steven Dick and Iris Fry talk about the history of the search for life in the universe and the history of theories of the origin of life on Earth, respectively. Ann Druyan discusses her long association with Carl Sagan and her work in science education. Neil Tyson, Director of the Hayden Planetarium, talks about our halting progress in space travel and the prospects for venturing to find life among the stars. George “Pinky” Nelson gives an astronaut’s perspective on life on Earth and elsewhere, and Steve Benner and William Bains speculate on altering the architecture of life on Earth and on how strange life beyond Earth may be.
|
||||
The second section of the book turns to the history of life on Earth. Roger Buick talks about the earliest evidence for biology and John Baross talks about its possible origin on the sea floor. Lynn Rothschild talks about extremophiles and the extraordinary modes of adaptation of terrestrial organisms. Joe Kirschvink presents the evidence for Snowball Earth and the challenges that a restless planet presents for biology. Andrew Knoll and Simon Conway Morris discuss natural selection and the contrasting themes of contingency and convergence. As two examples of "alien" intelligence on Earth, Roger Hanlon talks about his field work with octopuses and Lori Marino talks about her research on dolphins.
|
||||
Turning to the Solar System, the next section of the book looks at the prospects for life on our doorstep. Chris McKay and Peter Smith talk about Mars and the potential for extant microbial life under the surface layer. Speculating about more exotic habitats for life, David Grinspoon considers Venus and Jupiter’s moon Io, then Jonathan Lunine considers Saturn’s large moon Titan. Carolyn Porco notes the surprising results from the Cassini mission, including the habitability of Enceladus. The biological potential of meteorites is the subject of the interviews with Laurie Leshin and Jesuit Guy Consolmagno, who note the presence of the complex building blocks of life in this primordial material from the outer Solar System.
|
||||
The next section of the book covers the fast-moving research on planets around other stars. Alan Boss discusses the theory of extrasolar planets or exoplanets, and ace planet-hunters Debra Fischer and Geoff Marcy talk about their properties and the technical innovations that led to their discovery. Sara Seager summarizes efforts to characterize exoplanets in detail, and David Charbonneau talks about the power of the transit method for detecting low mass and Earth-like planets. Last, Vicky Meadows describes how planet models will be used to predict the spectral biomarkers that could indirectly indicate the presence of microbial life on an exoplanet.
|
||||
Talking About Life ends with the search for intelligent life (SETI) and speculation about the role of life in the universe. Jill Tarter and Seth Shostak describe the strategies that have been used to listen for artificial signal from technological civilizations far from Earth for over fifty years, so far without success. Ray Kurzweil talks about postbiological evolution and Nick Bostrom talks about transhumanism and the odds that the entire universe, and our sense of it and ourselves, is a simulation by a super-intelligent civilization. Next, Paul Davies and Martin Rees talk about fine-tuning and the anthropic principle, which each indicate that biology has a privileged role in the cosmos. To round out the book with a humanistic perspective, Ben Bova talks about our future in space and Jennifer Michael Hecht rekindles our delight in alien yet familiar life on Earth.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
Cambridge University Press
|
||||
Amazon Author Page
|
||||
Chris Impey's Website
|
||||
31
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|
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title: "Tantrasamgraha"
|
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source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantrasamgraha"
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|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:34:48.399156+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Tantrasamgraha, or Tantrasangraha, (literally, A Compilation of the System) is an astronomical treatise written by Nilakantha Somayaji, an astronomer/mathematician belonging to the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics.
|
||||
The treatise was completed in 1501 CE. It consists of 432 verses in Sanskrit divided into eight chapters. Tantrasamgraha had spawned a few commentaries: Tantrasamgraha-vyakhya of anonymous authorship and Yuktibhāṣā authored by Jyeshtadeva in about 1550 CE.
|
||||
Tantrasangraha, together with its commentaries, bring forth the depths of the mathematical accomplishments the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics, in particular the achievements of the remarkable mathematician of the school Sangamagrama Madhava.
|
||||
In his Tantrasangraha, Nilakantha revised Aryabhata's model for the planets Mercury and Venus. According to George G Joseph his equation of the centre for these planets remained the most accurate until the time of Johannes Kepler in the 17th century.
|
||||
It was C.M. Whish, a civil servant of East India Company, who brought to the attention of the western scholarship the existence of Tantrasamgraha through a paper published in 1835. The other books mentioned by C.M. Whish in his paper were Yuktibhāṣā of Jyeshtadeva, Karanapaddhati of Puthumana Somayaji and Sadratnamala of Sankara Varman.
|
||||
|
||||
== Author and date of Tantrasamgraha ==
|
||||
|
||||
Nilakantha Somayaji, the author of Tantrasamgraha, was a Nambudiri belonging to the Gargya gotra and a resident of Trikkantiyur, near Tirur in central Kerala. The name of his Illam was Kelallur. He studied under Damodara, son of Paramesvara. The first and the last verses in Tantrasamgraha contain chronograms specifying the dates, in the form Kali days, of the commencement and of the completion of book. These work out to dates in 1500–01.
|
||||
|
||||
== Synopsis of the book ==
|
||||
A brief account of the contents of Tantrasamgraha is presented below. A descriptive account of the contents is available in Bharatheeya Vijnana/Sastra Dhara. Full details of the contents are available in an edition of Tantrasamgraha published in the Indian Journal of History of Science.
|
||||
|
||||
Chapter 1 (Madhyama-prakaranam): The purpose of the astronomical computation, civil and sidereal day measurements, lunar month, solar month, intercalary month, revolutions of the planets, theory of intercalation, planetary revolution in circular orbits, computation of kali days, mathematical operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, squaring and determining square root, fractions, positive and negative numbers, computation of mean planets, correction for longitude, longitudinal time, positions of the planets at the beginning of Kali era, planetary apogees in degrees. (40 slokas)
|
||||
Chapter 2 (Sphuta-prakaranam (On true planets)): Computation of risings, and arcs, construction of a circle of diameter equal to the side of a given square, computation of the circumference without the use of square and roots, sum of series, sum of the series of natural numbers, of squares of numbers, of cubes of numbers, processes relating to Rsines and arcs, computation of the arc of a given Rsine, computation of the circumference of a circle, derivation of Rsines for given Rversed sine and arc, computation of Rsine and arcs, accurate computation of the 24 ordained Rsines, sectional Rsines and Rsine differences, sum of Rsine differences, summation of Rsine differences, computation of the arc of an Rsine according to Madhava, computation of Rsine and Rversed sine at desired point without the aid of the ordained Rsines, rules relating to triangles, rules relating to cyclic quadrilaterals, rules relating to the hypotenuse of a quadrilateral, computation of the diameter from the area of the cyclic quadrilateral, surface area of a sphere, computation of the desired Rsine, the ascensional difference, sun's daily motion in minutes of arc, application of ascensional difference to true planets, measure of day and night on applying ascensional difference, conversion of the arc of Rsine of the ascensional difference, etc. (59 slokas)
|
||||
Chapter 3 (Chhaya-prakaranam (Treatise on shadow)): Deals with various problems related with the sun's position on the celestial sphere, including the relationships of its expressions in the three systems of coordinates, namely ecliptic, equatorial and horizontal coordinates. (116 slokas)
|
||||
Chapter 4 (Chandragrahana-prakaranam (Treatise on the lunar eclipse)): Diameter of the Earth's shadow in minutes, Moon's latitude and Moon's rate of motion, probability of an eclipse, total eclipse and rationale of the explanation given for total eclipse, half duration and first and last contacts, points of contacts and points of release in eclipse, and their method of calculation, visibility of the contact in the eclipse at sunrise and sunset, contingency of the invisibility of an eclipse, possibility of the deflection, deflection due to latitude and that due to declination. (53 slokas)
|
||||
Chapter 5 (Ravigrahana-prakaranam (Treatise on the solar eclipse)): Possibility of a solar eclipse, minutes of parallax in latitude of the sun, minutes of parallax in latitude of the moon,. maximum measure of the eclipse, middle of the eclipse, time of first contact and last contact, half duration and times of submergence and emergence, reduction to observation of computed eclipse, mid eclipse, non prediction of an eclipse. (63 slokas)
|
||||
Chapter 6 (Vyatipata-prakaranam (On vyatipata)): Deals with the complete deviation of the longitudes of the sun and the moon. (24 slokas)
|
||||
Chapter 7 (Drikkarma-prakaranam (On visibility computation)): Discusses the rising and setting of the moon and planets. (15 slokas)
|
||||
Chapter 8 (Sringonnati-prakaranam (On elevation of the lunar cusps)): Examines the size of the part of the moon which is illuminated by the sun and gives a graphical representation of it. (40 slokas)
|
||||
39
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|
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title: "Tantrasamgraha"
|
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|
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source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantrasamgraha"
|
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|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:34:48.399156+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
== Some noteworthy features of Tantrasamgraha ==
|
||||
"A remarkable synthesis of Indian spherical astronomical knowledge occurs in a passage in Tantrasamgraha."
|
||||
In astronomy, the spherical triangle formed by the zenith, the celestial north pole and the Sun is called the astronomical triangle. Its sides and two of its angles are important astronomical quantities. The sides are 90° – φ where φ is the observer's terrestrial latitude, 90° – δ where δ is the Sun's declination and 90° – a where a is the Sun's altitude above the horizon. The important angles are the angle at the zenith which is the Sun's azimuth and the angle at the north pole which is the Sun's hour angle. The problem is to compute two of these elements when the other three elements are specified. There are precisely ten different possibilities and Tantrasamgraha contains discussions of all these possibilities with complete solutions one by one in one place. "The spherical triangle is handled as systematically here as in any modern textbook."
|
||||
The terrestrial latitude of an observer's position is equal to the zenith distance of the Sun at noon on the equinoctial day. The effect of solar parallax on zenith distance was known to Indian astronomers right from Aryabhata. But it was Nilakantha Somayaji who first discussed the effect of solar parallax on the observer's latitude. Tantrasamgraha gives the magnitude of this correction and also a correction due to the finite size of the Sun.
|
||||
In his Aryabhatiyabhasya, a commentary on Aryabhata's Aryabhatiya, Nilakantha developed a computational system for a partially heliocentric planetary model in which Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn orbit the Sun, which in turn orbits the Earth, similar to the Tychonic system later proposed by Tycho Brahe in the late 16th century. Most astronomers of the Kerala school who followed him accepted this planetary model.
|
||||
|
||||
== Conference on 500 years of Tantrasamgraha ==
|
||||
A Conference to celebrate the 500th Anniversary of Tantrasangraha was organised by the Department of Theoretical Physics, University of Madras, in collaboration with the Inter-University Centre of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, during 11–13 March 2000, at Chennai.
|
||||
The Conference turned out to be an important occasion for highlighting and reviewing the recent work on the achievements in Mathematics and Astronomy of the Kerala school and the new perspectives in History of Science, which are emerging from these studies. A compilation of the important papers presented at this Conference has also been published.
|
||||
|
||||
== Other works of the same author ==
|
||||
The following is a brief description of the other works by Nilakantha Somayaji.
|
||||
|
||||
Jyotirmimamsa
|
||||
Golasara : Description of basic astronomical elements and procedures
|
||||
Sidhhantadarpana : A short work in 32 slokas enunciating the astronomical constants with reference to the Kalpa and specifying his views on astronomical concepts and topics.
|
||||
Candrachayaganita : A work in 32 verses on the methods for the calculation of time from the measurement of the shadow of the gnomon cast by the moon and vice versa.
|
||||
Aryabhatiya-bhashya : Elaborate commentary on Aryabhatiya.
|
||||
Sidhhantadarpana-vyakhya : Commentary on his own Siddhantadarapana.
|
||||
Chandrachhayaganita-vyakhya : Commentary on his own Chandrachhayaganita.
|
||||
Sundaraja-prasnottara : Nilakantha's answers to questions posed by Sundaraja, a Tamil Nadu-based astronomer.
|
||||
Grahanadi-grantha : Rationale of the necessity of correcting old astronomical constants by observations.
|
||||
Grahapariksakrama : Description of the principles and methods for verifying astronomical computations by regular observations.
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
== Further reading ==
|
||||
Ramasubramanian, K (1998). "Model of planetary motion in the works of Kerala astronomers". Bulletin of the Astronomical Society of India. 26 (11–31): 11. Bibcode:1998BASI...26...11R.
|
||||
Ranjan Roy, R. (December 1990). "The discovery of the series formula for π by Leibniz, Gregory and Nilakantha" (PDF). Mathematics Magazine. 63 (5). Mathematical Association of America: 291–306. doi:10.2307/2690896. JSTOR 2690896.
|
||||
51
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textbook_of_Biochemistry-0.md
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||||
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|
||||
title: "Textbook of Biochemistry"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textbook_of_Biochemistry"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:32.738606+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Textbook of Biochemistry, first published in 1928, is scientific textbook authored by Alexander Thomas Cameron. The textbook became a standard of its field, and, by 1948, had gone through six editions, in addition to one Chinese and two Spanish editions.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Publication ==
|
||||
Textbook of Biochemistry consists entirely of lecture manuscripts given by the author, Alexander Thomas Cameron, over several years. Cameron had lectured at the University of Manitoba since 1909, but was never a fluent speaker. To compensate for this, he would write out his lectures in full. Cameron was encouraged by students and friends to submit his lecture manuscripts for publication. The textbook's first edition was published with a preface by Swale Vincent, Professor of Physiology at the University of London.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Structure ==
|
||||
Textbook of Biochemistry is divided into the following chapters:
|
||||
|
||||
Introduction
|
||||
Introduction to the concept of biochemistry, and a review of catalytic reactions and pH.
|
||||
|
||||
Food-Stuffs, Their Derivatives and Related Substances.
|
||||
Ideas regarding carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins.
|
||||
|
||||
The Chemistry of Digestion, the Circulation, and the Excreto.
|
||||
The importance of bacterial and chemical activity in organisms.
|
||||
|
||||
Intermediate Metabolism
|
||||
The chemistry of tissues, intracellular synthesis, products of metabolism, and vitamins.
|
||||
|
||||
The Chemistry of Reproduction; The Chemical Controlling Agencies of the Organism.
|
||||
The agents governing metabolic processes.
|
||||
|
||||
Quantitative Metabolism.
|
||||
Addenda.
|
||||
A review of the present status of immunological biochemistry, and applications of biochemistry in industry.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
Treat B. Johnson, writing for the Journal of Chemical Education, acknowledged the difficulty of concisely covering the rapidly growing field of biochemistry, but concluded that Cameron has "done quite well." He described Textbook of Biochemistry as "not a book that follows the ordinary logical procedure usually associated with such texts," and complements Cameron on a "dogmatic treatment which is really stimulating."
|
||||
The British Medical Journal also gave a favourable review, writing that "the busy medical student will find this book a concise account of the facts with which he is expected to become familiar." However, it also observed that the book contains several statements that are "definitely not in agreement with the facts as at present known." The reviewer contradicts, for example, the book's assertions that urinal ammonia is formed in the kidneys from urea, and that pepsin does not attack the CO-NH links in proteins.
|
||||
Textbook of Biochemistry, being the first concise and authoritative work in its field, became a standard text. By 1948, it had gone through six editions, in addition to one Chinese and two Spanish editions.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
Full text of A Textbook of Biochemistry (1st edition) at Internet Archive
|
||||
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Art of Computer Programming"
|
||||
chunk: 1/3
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Computer_Programming"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:49.830398+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Art of Computer Programming (TAOCP) is a comprehensive multi-volume monograph (Volumes 1-7) written by the computer scientist Donald Knuth presenting programming algorithms and their analysis. As of 2026 it consists of published volumes 1, 2, 3, 4A, and 4B, with more expected to be released in the future. The Volumes 1–5 are intended to represent the central core of computer programming for sequential machines; the subjects of Volumes 6 and 7 are important but more specialized.
|
||||
When Knuth began the project in 1962, he originally conceived of it as a single book with twelve chapters. The first three volumes of what was then expected to be a seven-volume set were published in 1968, 1969, and 1973. Work began in earnest on Volume 4 in 1973, but was suspended in 1977 for work on typesetting prompted by the second edition of Volume 2. Writing of the final copy of Volume 4A began in longhand in 2001, and the first online pre-fascicle, 2A, appeared later in 2001. The first published installment of Volume 4 appeared in paperback as Fascicle 2 in 2005. The hardback Volume 4A, combining Volume 4, Fascicles 0–4, was published in 2011. Volume 4, Fascicle 6 ("Satisfiability") was released in December 2015; Volume 4, Fascicle 5 ("Mathematical Preliminaries Redux; Backtracking; Dancing Links") was released in November 2019.
|
||||
Volume 4B consists of material evolved from Fascicles 5 and 6. The manuscript was sent to the publisher on August 1, 2022, and the volume was published in September 2022. Fascicle 7 ("Constraint Satisfaction"), planned for Volume 4C, was the subject of Knuth's talk on August 3, 2022 and was published on February 5, 2025.
|
||||
|
||||
== History ==
|
||||
|
||||
After winning a Westinghouse Talent Search scholarship, Knuth enrolled at the Case Institute of Technology (now Case Western Reserve University), where his performance was so outstanding that the faculty voted to award him a master of science upon his completion of the bachelor's degree. During his summer vacations, Knuth was hired by the Burroughs Corporation to write compilers, earning more in his summer months than full professors did for an entire year. Such exploits made Knuth a topic of discussion among the mathematics department, which included Richard S. Varga.
|
||||
In January 1962, when he was a graduate student in the mathematics department at Caltech, Knuth was approached by Addison-Wesley to write a book about compiler design, and he proposed a larger scope. He came up with a list of twelve chapter titles the same day. In the summer of 1962 he worked on a FORTRAN compiler for UNIVAC, considering that he had "sold my soul to the devil" to develop a FORTRAN compiler after ALGOL developments with Burroughs. He remained as a consultant to Burroughs over the period 1960 to 1968 while writing Volume 1 "Fundamental Algorithms".
|
||||
During this time, he also developed a mathematical analysis of linear probing, which convinced him to present the material with a quantitative approach. After receiving his Ph.D. in June 1963, he began working on his manuscript, of which he finished his first draft in June 1965, at 3000 hand-written pages. He had assumed that about five hand-written pages would translate into one printed page, but his publisher said instead that about 1+1⁄2 hand-written pages translated to one printed page. This meant he had approximately 2000 printed pages of material, which closely matches the size of the first three published volumes.
|
||||
The first volume of "The Art of Computer Programming", "Fundamental Algorithms", took five years to complete between 1963 and 1968 while working at both Caltech and Burroughs.
|
||||
Knuth's dedication in Volume 1 reads:
|
||||
|
||||
This series of books is affectionately dedicatedto the Type 650 computer once installed atCase Institute of Technology,in remembrance of many pleasant evenings.
|
||||
In the preface, he thanks first his wife Jill, then Burroughs for the use of B220 and B5500 computers in testing most of the programs, and Caltech, the National Science Foundation, and the Office of Naval Research.
|
||||
Section 2.5 of "Fundamental Algorithms" is on Dynamic Storage Allocation. Parts of this are used in the Burroughs approach to memory management. Knuth claims credit for: “the “boundary-tag” method, introduced in Section 2.5, was designed by the author in 1962 for use in a control program for the B5000 computer.”
|
||||
Knuth received support from Richard S. Varga, who was the scientific adviser to the publisher. Varga was visiting Olga Taussky-Todd and John Todd at Caltech. With Varga's enthusiastic endorsement, the publisher accepted Knuth's expanded plans. In its expanded version, the book would be published in seven volumes, each with just one or two chapters. Due to the growth in Chapter 7, which was fewer than 100 pages of the 1965 manuscript, per Vol. 4A p. vi, the plan for Volume 4 has since expanded to include Volumes 4A, 4B, 4C, 4D, and possibly more.
|
||||
In 1976, Knuth prepared a second edition of Volume 2, requiring it to be typeset again, but the style of type used in the first edition (called hot type) was no longer readily available. In 1977, he decided to spend some time creating something more suitable. Eight years later, he returned with TEX, which is currently used for all volumes.
|
||||
Another characteristic of the volumes is the variation in the difficulty of the exercises including a numerical rating varying from 0 to 50, where 0 is trivial, and 50 is an open question in contemporary research.
|
||||
|
||||
== Bounty for finding errors ==
|
||||
The offer of a so-called Knuth reward check worth "one hexadecimal dollar" (100HEX base 16 cents, in decimal, is $2.56) for any errors found, and the correction of these errors in subsequent printings, has contributed to the highly polished and still-authoritative nature of the work, long after its first publication.
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Art of Computer Programming"
|
||||
chunk: 2/3
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Computer_Programming"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:49.830398+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
== Assembly language in the book ==
|
||||
All examples in the books use a hypothetical language called "MIX assembly language" (MIXAL), which runs on "a mythical computer called 'MIX,'" which was developed to be contemporaneous with other 1960s and 1970s computers. Despite Knuth's intention to have MIX stand the test of time, he remarked in the third edition of the first volume that it had nonetheless become "quite obsolete." During the 1990s, Knuth began developing MMIX, a modern, RISC-based computer, which Knuth described as "A RISC computer for the new millennium." The conversion from MIX to MMIX was a large, multi-year project, for which Knuth solicited help from volunteers. MMIX would reach its stable release in 2011. Knuth considers the use of assembly language necessary for the speed and memory usage of algorithms to be judged.
|
||||
Regarding the origin of MIX, Knuth remarked it was much like any computer then in existence, "but, perhaps, nicer." The name MIX can be represented as 1009 in Roman numerals. Further, Knuth explains the derivation of 1009 came from taking sixteen actual computers he deemed similar to MIX and on which MIX was easily simulated. He averaged the numeric portions of their model numbers with equal weight:
|
||||
⌊(360 + 650 + 709 + 7070 + U3 + SS80 + 1107 + 1604 + G20 + B220 + S2000 + 920 + 601 + H800 + PDP-4 + II) / 16⌋ = 1009
|
||||
Software such as the GNU MIX Development Kit (MDK) exists to provide emulation of the MIX architecture.
|
||||
|
||||
== Critical response ==
|
||||
Knuth was awarded the 1974 Turing Award "for his major contributions to the analysis of algorithms […], and in particular for his contributions to the 'art of computer programming' through his well-known books in a continuous series by this title." American Scientist has included this work among "100 or so Books that shaped a Century of Science", referring to the twentieth century. Covers of the third edition of Volume 1 quote Bill Gates as saying, "If you think you're a really good programmer… read (Knuth's) Art of Computer Programming… You should definitely send me a résumé if you can read the whole thing." The New York Times referred to it as "the profession's defining treatise".
|
||||
|
||||
== Volumes ==
|
||||
|
||||
=== Completed ===
|
||||
Volume 1 – Fundamental algorithms
|
||||
Chapter 1 – Basic concepts
|
||||
Chapter 2 – Information structures
|
||||
Volume 2 – Seminumerical algorithms
|
||||
Chapter 3 – Random numbers
|
||||
Chapter 4 – Arithmetic
|
||||
Volume 3 – Sorting and searching
|
||||
Chapter 5 – Sorting
|
||||
Chapter 6 – Searching
|
||||
Volume 4A – Combinatorial algorithms
|
||||
Chapter 7 – Combinatorial searching (part 1)
|
||||
Volume 4B – Combinatorial algorithms
|
||||
Chapter 7 – Combinatorial searching (part 2)
|
||||
|
||||
=== Planned ===
|
||||
Volume 4C, 4D, ... Combinatorial algorithms (chapters 7 & 8 released in several subvolumes)
|
||||
Chapter 7 – Combinatorial searching (continued)
|
||||
Chapter 8 – Recursion
|
||||
Volume 5 – Syntactic algorithms
|
||||
Chapter 9 – Lexical scanning (also includes string search and data compression)
|
||||
Chapter 10 – Parsing techniques
|
||||
Volume 6 – The Theory of context-free languages
|
||||
Chapter 11 – Mathematical linguistics
|
||||
Volume 7 – Compiler techniques
|
||||
Chapter 12 – Programming language translation
|
||||
|
||||
== English editions ==
|
||||
|
||||
=== Current editions ===
|
||||
These are the current editions in order by volume number:
|
||||
|
||||
The Art of Computer Programming, Volumes 1-4B Boxed Set. (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 2023), 3904pp. ISBN 978-0-13-793510-9, 0-13-793510-2
|
||||
Volume 1: Fundamental Algorithms. Third Edition (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1997), xx+650pp. ISBN 978-0-201-89683-1, 0-201-89683-4. Errata: [1] (from 2011-01-08), [2] (from 2022, 49th printing). Addenda: [3] (2011).
|
||||
Volume 2: Seminumerical Algorithms. Third Edition (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1997), xiv+762pp. ISBN 978-0-201-89684-8, 0-201-89684-2. Errata: [4] (from 2011-01-08), [5] (from 2022, 45th printing). Addenda: [6] (2011).
|
||||
Volume 3: Sorting and Searching. Second Edition (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1998), xiv+780pp.+foldout. ISBN 978-0-201-89685-5, 0-201-89685-0. Errata: [7] (from 2011-01-08), [8] (from 2022, 45th printing). Addenda: [9] (2011).
|
||||
Volume 4A: Combinatorial Algorithms, Part 1. First Edition (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Addison-Wesley, 2011, 26th printing), xv+883pp. ISBN 978-0-201-03804-0, 0-201-03804-8. Errata: [10] (from 2011), [11] (from 2022, 20th printing).
|
||||
Volume 4B: Combinatorial Algorithms, Part 2. First Edition (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Addison-Wesley, 2023, 3rd printing), xviii+714pp. ISBN 978-0-201-03806-4, 0-201-03806-4. Errata: [12] (from 2023, 1st printing).
|
||||
Volume 1, Fascicle 1: MMIX – A RISC Computer for the New Millennium. (Addison-Wesley, 2005-02-14), 144pp. ISBN 0-201-85392-2. Errata: [13] (from 2005, 1st printing) (will be in the fourth edition of volume 1)
|
||||
The MMIX Supplement by Martin Ruckert. (Addison-Wesley), 193pp. ISBN 0-13-399231-4. A conversion of the MIX problems/programs in volumes 1, 2 & 3 to MMIX.
|
||||
Volume 4, Fascicle 7: Constraint Satisfaction. (Addison-Wesley, 2025-02-05), xiv+281pp. ISBN 978-0-13-532824-8. Errata: [14] (2025-12-28).
|
||||
|
||||
=== Previous editions ===
|
||||
|
||||
==== Complete volumes ====
|
||||
These volumes were superseded by newer editions and are in order by date.
|
||||
|
||||
Volume 1: Fundamental Algorithms. First edition, 1968, xxi+634pp, ISBN 0-201-03801-3.
|
||||
Volume 2: Seminumerical Algorithms. First edition, 1969, xi+624pp, ISBN 0-201-03802-1.
|
||||
Volume 3: Sorting and Searching. First edition, 1973, xi+723pp+foldout, ISBN 0-201-03803-X. Errata: [15].
|
||||
Volume 1: Fundamental Algorithms. Second edition, 1973, xxi+634pp, ISBN 0-201-03809-9. Errata: [16].
|
||||
Volume 2: Seminumerical Algorithms. Second edition, 1981, xiii+ 688pp, ISBN 0-201-03822-6. Errata: [17].
|
||||
The Art of Computer Programming, Volumes 1-3 Boxed Set. Second Edition (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1998), pp. ISBN 978-0-201-48541-7, 0-201-48541-9
|
||||
The Art of Computer Programming, Volumes 1-4A Boxed Set. Third Edition (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 2011), 3168pp. ISBN 978-0-321-75104-1, 0-321-75104-3
|
||||
|
||||
==== Fascicles ====
|
||||
Volume 4, Fascicles 0–4 were revised and published as Volume 4A.
|
||||
|
||||
Volume 4, Fascicle 0: Introduction to Combinatorial Algorithms and Boolean Functions. (Addison-Wesley Professional, 2008-04-28) vi+240pp, ISBN 0-321-53496-4. Errata: [18] (2011-01-01).
|
||||
Volume 4, Fascicle 1: Bitwise Tricks & Techniques; Binary Decision Diagrams. (Addison-Wesley Professional, 2009-03-27) viii+260pp, ISBN 0-321-58050-8. Errata: [19] (2011-01-01).
|
||||
Volume 4, Fascicle 2: Generating All Tuples and Permutations. (Addison-Wesley, 2005-02-14) v+127pp, ISBN 0-201-85393-0. Errata: [20] (2011-01-01).
|
||||
Volume 4, Fascicle 3: Generating All Combinations and Partitions. (Addison-Wesley, 2005-07-26) vi+150pp, ISBN 0-201-85394-9. Errata: [21] (2011-01-01).
|
||||
Volume 4, Fascicle 4: Generating All Trees; History of Combinatorial Generation. (Addison-Wesley, 2006-02-06) vi+120pp, ISBN 0-321-33570-8. Errata: [22] (2011-01-01).
|
||||
Volume 4, Fascicles 5–6 were revised and published as Volume 4B.
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Art of Computer Programming"
|
||||
chunk: 3/3
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Computer_Programming"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:49.830398+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Volume 4, Fascicle 5: Mathematical Preliminaries Redux; Backtracking; Dancing Links. (Addison-Wesley, 2019-11-22) xiii+382pp, ISBN 978-0-13-467179-6. Errata: [23] (2020-03-27)
|
||||
Volume 4, Fascicle 6: Satisfiability. (Addison-Wesley, 2015-12-08) xiii+310pp, ISBN 978-0-13-439760-3. Errata: [24] (2020-03-26)
|
||||
|
||||
==== Pre-fascicles ====
|
||||
Pre-fascicles contain draft of evolving material for future Fascicles. They are put online primarily so that experts in the field can check the contents before distributing them to a wider audience.
|
||||
Volume 1
|
||||
|
||||
Pre-fascicle 1: MMIX was revised and published as Volume 1, fascicle 1.
|
||||
Volume 4
|
||||
|
||||
Pre-fascicles 0A: Introduction to Combinatorial Searching, 0B: Boolean Basics, and 0C: Boolean Evaluation were revised and published as Volume 4, fascicle 0.
|
||||
Pre-fascicles 1A: Bitwise Tricks and Techniques and 1B: Binary Decision Diagrams were revised and published as Volume 4, fascicle 1.
|
||||
Pre-fascicles 2A: Generating All n-Tuples and 2B: Generating All Permutations were revised and published as Volume 4, fascicle 2.
|
||||
Pre-fascicles 3A: Generating All Combinations and 3B: Generating All Partitions were revised and published as Volume 4, fascicle 3.
|
||||
Pre-fascicles 4A: Generating All Trees and 4B: History of Combinatorial Generation were revised and published as Volume 4, fascicle 4.
|
||||
Pre-fascicles 5A: Preliminaries Redux, 5B: Introduction to Backtracking, and 5C: Dancing Links were revised and published as Volume 4, fascicle 5.
|
||||
Pre-fascicle 6A: Satisfiability was revised and published as Volume 4, fascicle 6.
|
||||
Pre-fascicle 7A: Constraint Satisfaction was revised and published as Volume 4, fascicle 7.
|
||||
The remaining pre-fascicles contain draft material that is set to appear in future fascicles and volumes.
|
||||
|
||||
Volume 4, Pre-fascicle 8A: Hamiltonian Paths and Cycles (PDF unmantained Version)
|
||||
Volume 4, Pre-fascicle 8B: Cliques
|
||||
Volume 4, Pre-fascicle 9B: A Potpourri of Puzzles
|
||||
Volume 4, Pre-fascicle 9C: Estimating Backtrack Costs
|
||||
Volume 4, Pre-fascicle 12A: Components and Traversal (PDF Version)
|
||||
Volume 4, Pre-fascicle 14A: Bipartite Matching
|
||||
Volume 4, Pre-fascicle 16A: Introduction to Recursion
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
Introduction to Algorithms
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
Notes
|
||||
|
||||
Citations
|
||||
|
||||
Sources
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
|
||||
Overview of topics (Knuth's personal homepage)
|
||||
Announcement of Volume 1 of 'The Art of Computer Programming'
|
||||
Oral history interview with Donald E. Knuth at Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 2001. Knuth discusses software patenting, structured programming, collaboration and his development of TeX. The oral history discusses the writing of The Art of Computer Programming.
|
||||
"Robert W Floyd, In Memoriam", by Donald E. Knuth, 2003 - (on the influence of Bob Floyd)
|
||||
TAoCP and its Influence of Computer Science (Softpanorama)
|
||||
69
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cathedral_and_the_Bazaar-0.md
Normal file
69
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cathedral_and_the_Bazaar-0.md
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Cathedral and the Bazaar"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cathedral_and_the_Bazaar"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:54.530743+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary (abbreviated CatB) is an essay, and later a book, by Eric S. Raymond on software engineering methods, based on his observations of the Linux kernel development process and his experiences managing an open source project, fetchmail. It examines the struggle between top-down and bottom-up design. The essay was first presented by Raymond at the Linux Kongress on May 27, 1997, in Würzburg, Germany, and was published as the second chapter of the same‑titled book in 1999.
|
||||
The illustration on the cover of the book is a 1913 painting by Lyubov Popova titled Composition with Figures and belongs to the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery. The book was released under the Open Publication License v2.0 in 1999.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Central thesis ==
|
||||
The software essay contrasts two different free software development models:
|
||||
|
||||
The cathedral model, in which source code is available with each software release, but code developed between releases is restricted to an exclusive group of software developers. GNU Emacs and GCC were presented as examples.
|
||||
The bazaar model, in which the code is developed over the Internet in view of the public. Raymond credits Linus Torvalds, leader of the Linux kernel project, as the inventor of this process. Raymond also provides anecdotal accounts of his own implementation of this model for the Fetchmail project.
|
||||
The essay's central thesis is Raymond's proposition that "given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow" (which he terms Linus's law): the more widely available the source code is for public testing, scrutiny, and experimentation, the more rapidly all forms of bugs will be discovered. In contrast, Raymond claims that an inordinate amount of time and energy must be spent hunting for bugs in the Cathedral model, since the working version of the code is available only to a few developers.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Lessons for creating good open source software ==
|
||||
Raymond points to 19 "lessons" learned from various software development efforts, each describing attributes associated with good practice in open source software development:
|
||||
|
||||
Every good work of software starts by scratching a developer's personal itch.
|
||||
Good programmers know what to write. Great ones know what to rewrite (and reuse).
|
||||
Plan to throw one [version] away; you will, anyhow (copied from Frederick Brooks's The Mythical Man-Month).
|
||||
If you have the right attitude, interesting problems will find you.
|
||||
When you lose interest in a program, your last duty to it is to hand it off to a competent successor.
|
||||
Treating your users as co-developers is your least-hassle route to rapid code improvement and effective debugging.
|
||||
Release early. Release often. And listen to your customers.
|
||||
Given a large enough beta-tester and co-developer base, almost every problem will be characterized quickly and the fix obvious to someone.
|
||||
Smart data structures and dumb code works a lot better than the other way around.
|
||||
If you treat your beta-testers as if they're your most valuable resource, they will respond by becoming your most valuable resource.
|
||||
The next best thing to having good ideas is recognizing good ideas from your users. Sometimes the latter is better.
|
||||
Often, the most striking and innovative solutions come from realizing that your concept of the problem was wrong.
|
||||
Perfection (in design) is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but rather when there is nothing more to take away. (Attributed to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)
|
||||
Any tool should be useful in the expected way, but a truly great tool lends itself to uses you never expected.
|
||||
When writing gateway software of any kind, take pains to disturb the data stream as little as possible—and never throw away information unless the recipient forces you to!
|
||||
When your [configuration] language is nowhere near Turing-complete, syntactic sugar can be your friend.
|
||||
A security system is only as secure as its secret. Beware of pseudo-secrets.
|
||||
To solve an interesting problem, start by finding a problem that is interesting to you.
|
||||
Provided the development coordinator has a communications medium at least as good as the Internet, and knows how to lead without coercion, many heads are inevitably better than one.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Legacy and reception ==
|
||||
In 1998, the essay helped the final push for Netscape Communications Corporation to release the source code for Netscape Communicator and start the Mozilla project; it was cited by Frank Hecker and other employees as an outside independent validation of his arguments. Netscape's public recognition of this influence brought Raymond renown in hacker culture.
|
||||
When O'Reilly Media published the book in 1999 it became one of the first complete, commercially distributed books published under the Open Publication License.
|
||||
Marshall Poe, in his essay "The Hive", likens Wikipedia to the bazaar model that Raymond defines. Jimmy Wales himself was inspired by the work (as well as arguments put forward in pre-Internet works, such as Friedrich Hayek's article "The Use of Knowledge in Society"), arguing that "It opened my eyes to the possibility of mass collaboration".
|
||||
In 1999 Nikolai Bezroukov published two critical essays on Eric Raymond's views of open source software, the second one called "A second look at The Cathedral and the Bazaar". They produced a sharp response from Eric Raymond.
|
||||
Curtis Yarvin's essay "The Cathedral or the Bizarre", which argues for the end of American democracy, is named after the Raymond essay.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
GNU Bazaar, a distributed version control system named to highlight its relation with the "bazaar" model
|
||||
"Homesteading the Noosphere"
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Notes ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
|
||||
Official website
|
||||
Roberts, Russ (January 19, 2009). "Eric Raymond on Hacking, Open Source, and The Cathedral and the Bazaar". EconTalk. Library of Economics and Liberty.
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Chemical History of a Candle"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chemical_History_of_a_Candle"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:07.446701+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Chemical History of a Candle was the title of a series of six lectures on the chemistry and physics of flames given by Michael Faraday at the Royal Institution in 1848, as part of the series of Christmas lectures for young people founded by Faraday in 1825 and still given there every year.
|
||||
The lectures described the different zones of combustion in the candle flame and the presence of carbon particles in the luminescent zone. Demonstrations included the production and examination of the properties of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide gases. An electrolysis cell is demonstrated, first in the electroplating of platinum conductors by dissolved copper, then the production of hydrogen and oxygen gases and their recombination to form water. The properties of water itself are studied, including its expansion while freezing (iron vessels are burst by this expansion), and the relative volume of steam produced when water is vaporized. Techniques for weighing gases on a balance are demonstrated. Atmospheric pressure is described, and its effects are demonstrated.
|
||||
Faraday emphasizes that several of the demonstrations and experiments performed in the lectures may be performed by children "at home" and makes several comments regarding proper attention to safety.
|
||||
The lectures were first printed as a book in 1861.
|
||||
In 2016, Bill Hammack published a video series of lectures supplemented by commentary and a companion book. Faraday's ideas are still used as the basis for open teaching about energy in modern primary and secondary schools
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Contents of the six lectures ==
|
||||
Lecture 1: A Candle: The Flame - Its Sources - Structure - Mobility - Brightness
|
||||
Lecture 2: Brightness of the Flame - Air necessary for Combustion - Production of Water
|
||||
Lecture 3: Products: Water from the Combustion - Nature of Water - A Compound - Hydrogen
|
||||
Lecture 4: Hydrogen in the Candle - Burns into Water - The Other Part of Water - Oxygen
|
||||
Lecture 5: Oxygen present in the Air - Nature of the Atmosphere - Its Properties - Other Products from the Candle - Carbonic Acid - Its Properties
|
||||
Lecture 6: Carbon or Charcoal - Coal Gas Respiration and its Analogy to the Burning of a Candle - Conclusion
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
|
||||
Intended for young beginners, for whom it is well adapted, as an introduction to the study of chemistry.
|
||||
According to Frank Wilczek:
|
||||
|
||||
It is a wonderful laying-bare of surprising facts and intricate structure in a (superficially) familiar process — the burning of a candle. I think it exhibits a marvellously creative mind at work on its home ground, poking into details and following peculiarities to their root with carefully crafted experiments.
|
||||
According to Bill Griffith, F.R.S.C., of Imperial College London:
|
||||
|
||||
Faraday uses the candle as a symbol to talk about the nature of combustion — how the oxygen from air is needed, how water and CO2 are produced and the hidden role of hydrogen. The text is lyrical and beautifully expressed, communicating his obvious enthusiasm, authority and sense of excitement. There were many accompanying demonstrations, often involving explosions and bright lights. Endearingly, Faraday talks about himself and the audience as ’we philosophers’ and, on one occasion, as ’we juveniles’.
|
||||
The book was of inspiration for the Nobel-prize winner Akira Yoshino when he was a child.
|
||||
Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein admired the book and mentions it in Philosophical Investigations. Wittgenstein considered the book as an example of popular science done well, in contrast to other examples of popular science which "pander to people's curiosity to be titillated by the wonders of science without having to do any of the really hard work involved in understanding what science is about", such as the works of James Jeans. Faraday in contrast explains the difficulties and details of experiments.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
|
||||
Faraday, Michael (1861). W. Crookes (ed.). A Course of Six Lectures on the Chemical History of a Candle. Griffin, Bohn & Co. Full text of The Chemical History Of A Candle from Project Gutenberg
|
||||
Walker, Mark; Gröger, Martin; Schlüter, Kirsten; Mosler, Bernd (1 January 2008). "A Bright Spark: Open Teaching of Science Using Faraday's Lectures on Candles". Journal of Chemical Education. 85 (1): 59–62. doi:10.1021/ed085p59. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
|
||||
Faraday, Michael (1861). W. Crookes (ed.). A Course of Six Lectures on the Chemical History of a Candle. Griffin, Bohn & Co. ISBN 1-4255-1974-1. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) Full text of The Chemical History Of A Candle from Internet Archive, with illustrations.
|
||||
Pattison, Darcy and Michael Faraday (2016). Burn: Michael Faraday's Candle. Mims House. Retrieved 5 November 2020. Picture book adaptation of Faraday's lecture.
|
||||
The Chemical History of a Candle public domain audiobook at LibriVox
|
||||
The Chemical History of a Candle playlist on YouTube
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Book_of_Chemistry_Experiments"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:18.054768+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments is a children's chemistry book written in 1960 by Robert Brent and illustrated by Harry Lazarus and published by Western Publishing as part of their Golden Books series.
|
||||
A decade after the book's publication, concerns were raised over the safety of the reactions described, which frequently used or generated toxic or corrosive substances. For example, one experiment generated toxic chlorine gas, and another used carbon tetrachloride, a potent hepatotoxin.
|
||||
The book was also believed to be a source of inspiration to David Hahn, nicknamed "the Radioactive Boy Scout" by the media, who attempted to construct a nuclear reactor in his mother's shed, although the book does not include any nuclear reactions.
|
||||
Due to safety concerns, the book was eventually pulled from library shelves. It became quite rare, and as of November 2023 OCLC lists only 101 copies of this book in libraries worldwide. However, privately owned copies are routinely put up for sale online, as are PDF scans.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Printing history ==
|
||||
The first edition was printed in 1960. A second printing was made in 1962 and a revised edition was printed in 1963.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Hacker Ethic and the Spirit of the Information Age"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hacker_Ethic_and_the_Spirit_of_the_Information_Age"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:36:08.477419+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Hacker Ethic and the Spirit of the Information Age is a book released in 2001, and written by Pekka Himanen, with prologue written by Linus Torvalds and the epilogue written by Manuel Castells.
|
||||
Pekka Himanen is a philosopher. Manuel Castells is an internationally well-known sociologist. Linus Torvalds is the creator of the Linux kernel. The book has the ISBN 978-0-375-50566-9.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
Hacker ethic
|
||||
Linus's law
|
||||
The Art of Unix Programming
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
Book in Google books
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Illustrated Guide to the Elements"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illustrated_Guide_to_the_Elements"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:22.863445+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Illustrated Guide to the Elements is a book by Jenna Whyte. Published in 2012, the book features factual information about all the chemical elements with drawings to illustrate the information. There was mention of a sequel.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Periodic Table (Basher book)"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Periodic_Table_(Basher_book)"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:27.986056+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Periodic Table: Elements with Style is a 2007 children's science book created by Simon Basher and written by Adrian Dingle. It is the second book in Basher's science series, after Rocks and Minerals: A Gem of a Book. Some of the Basher Science books includes Physics: Why Matter Matters!, Biology: Life As We Know It, Astronomy: Out of this World!, Rocks and Minerals: A Gem of a Book, and Planet Earth: What Planet Are You On?, each of which is 128 pages long.
|
||||
The book is arranged in eleven chapters plus an introduction, and includes a poster in the back of the book. Each chapter is on a different group of the periodic table (hydrogen, the alkali metals, the alkaline earth metals, the transition metals, the boron elements, the carbon elements, the nitrogen elements, the oxygen elements, the halogen elements, the noble gases, the lanthanides and actinides, and the transactinides). For every type of then known atom, Basher has created a "manga-esque" cartoon, and for many types of atoms, Dingle, a high-school chemistry teacher who also developed an award-winning chemistry website has written a couple paragraphs of facts to go with the cartoon. Dingle, who says that "[s]cience is a serious business", wanted in writing the book "to get people engaged is to make it accessible while still presenting hard facts and knowledge," while Basher was concerned that the book's design be "sharp and focused" in order to "connect with today's visually advanced young audience."
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Critical response ==
|
||||
Publishers Weekly said that the book was a "lively introduction to the chart that has been the bane of many a chemistry student", and in a review in New Scientist, Vivienne Greig called The Periodic Table "an engrossing read and an ideal way to painlessly impart a great deal of science history to seen-it-all-before teenagers." A review on the Royal Society of Chemistry website had some minor reservations about the book, but said it was "endearing" and succeeded in making learning chemistry easier and more fun.
|
||||
The Periodic Table: Elements with Style has also been reviewed in the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books and the Journal of Chemical Education.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
|
||||
Simon Basher's website
|
||||
Adrian Dingle's award-winning chemistry website
|
||||
Kingfisher - publisher's website
|
||||
The Periodic Table - publisher's book page
|
||||
Basher books website
|
||||
65
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sceptical_Chymist-0.md
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65
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sceptical_Chymist-0.md
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|
||||
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|
||||
title: "The Sceptical Chymist"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sceptical_Chymist"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:30.381233+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-Physical Doubts & Paradoxes is the title of a book by Robert Boyle, published in London in 1661. In the form of a dialogue, the Sceptical Chymist presented Boyle's hypothesis that matter consisted of corpuscles and clusters of corpuscles in motion and that every phenomenon was the result of collisions of particles in motion. Boyle also objected to the definitions of elemental bodies propounded by Aristotle and by Paracelsus, instead defining elements as "perfectly unmingled bodies" (see below). For these reasons Robert Boyle has sometimes been called the founder of modern chemistry.
|
||||
The main setting for the book is a private garden, where five characters are having a conversation about the constituents of mixed bodies. Four of the characters are named, while the fifth one is the unnamed narrator. Due to the popularity of the book, Aristotle’s doctrine of the four elements and Paracelsus’ theory of the three principles gradually passed into disuse.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Contents ==
|
||||
The first part of the book begins with 5 friends (Carneades the host and the Skeptic, Philoponus the Chymist, Themistius the Aristotelian, Eleutherius the impartial Judge, and an unnamed narrator) meeting in Carneades's garden and chatting about the constituents of mixed bodies.
|
||||
In part one, Carneades (Boyle) lays out four propositions to the gathering, which sets the foundation for the rest of the book. They are as follows:
|
||||
|
||||
Proposition I.
|
||||
It seems not absurd to conceive that at the first production of mixt bodies, the universal matter whereof they among other parts of the universe consisted, was actually divided into little particles of several sizes and shapes variously moved.
|
||||
Proposition II.
|
||||
Neither is it impossible that of these minute particles divers of the smallest and neighboring ones were here and there associated into minute masses or clusters, and did by their coalitions constitute great store of such little primary concretions or masses as were not easily dissipable into such particles as composed them.
|
||||
Proposition III.
|
||||
I shall not peremptorily deny, that from most such mixt bodies as partake either of animals or vegetable nature, there may by the help of the fire be actually obtained a determinate number (whether three, four, or five, or fewer or more) of substances, worthy of differing denominations.
|
||||
Proposition IV.
|
||||
It may likewise be granted, that those distinct substances, which concretes generally either afford or are made up of, may without very much inconvenience be called the elements or principles of them.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Major themes ==
|
||||
Boyle first argued that fire is not a universal and sufficient analyzer of dividing all bodies into their elements, contrary to Jean Beguin and Joseph Duchesne. To prove this he turned for support to Jan Baptist van Helmont whose Alkahest was reputed to be a universal analyzer.
|
||||
Boyle rejected the Aristotelian theory of the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water) and also the three principles (salt, sulfur, and mercury) proposed by Paracelsus. After discussing the classical elements and chemical principles in the first five parts of the book, in the sixth part Boyle defines chemical element in a manner that approaches more closely to the modern concept:
|
||||
|
||||
I now mean by Elements, as those Chymists that speak plainest do by their Principles, certain Primitive and Simple, or perfectly unmingled bodies; which not being made of any other bodies, or of one another, are the Ingredients of all those call'd perfectly mixt Bodies are immediately compounded, and into which they are ultimately resolved.
|
||||
However, Boyle denied that any known material substances correspond to such "perfectly unmingled bodies." In his view, all known materials were compounds, even such substances as gold, silver, lead, sulfur, and carbon.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Influence ==
|
||||
According to E. J. Dijksterhuis, "After the appearance of The Sceptical Chymist Aristotle’s doctrine of the four elements as well as Paracelsus’ theory of the three principia gradually passes into disuse."
|
||||
The book's influence can be discerned in Nicholas Brady's reference to "jarring seeds" in his Ode to St. Cecilia (set by Henry Purcell in 1691, well before Daniel Bernoulli's kinetic theory):
|
||||
|
||||
Soul of the World! Inspir'd by thee,
|
||||
The jarring Seeds of Matter did agree,
|
||||
Thou didst the scatter'd Atoms bind,
|
||||
Which, by thy Laws of true proportion join'd,
|
||||
Made up of various Parts one perfect Harmony.
|
||||
Philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn references The Sceptical Chymist in the eleventh chapter of his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, while discussing his views on the historiography of science.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Cultural references ==
|
||||
The Sceptical Chymist is referenced in the novel Quicksilver.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Work ==
|
||||
Boyle, Robert (1661), The Sceptical Chymist : or Chymico-physical doubts and paradoxes, touching the spagyrist's principles commonly call'd hypostatical, as they are wont to be propos'd and defended by the generality of alchymists. Whereunto is praemis'd part of another discourse relating to the same subject: or Chymico-physical doubts and paradoxes, touching the spagyrist's principles commonly call'd hypostatical, as they are wont to be propos'd and defended by the generality of alchymists. Whereunto is praemis'd part of another discourse relating to the same subject, London: J. Cadwell, p. 436, OCLC 752672500, Wikidata Q60161, copy held by the British Library
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
|
||||
Scan of the 1661 edition, at archive.org
|
||||
Transcription of the book at Project Gutenberg
|
||||
In retrospect: The Sceptical Chymist Article by Lawrence Principe in Nature, January 5, 2011
|
||||
Davidson, John S. "Annotations to Boyle's "The Sceptical Chymist"" (PDF). Retrieved 2014-04-11.
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Science of Revolutionary Warfare"
|
||||
chunk: 1/2
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Science_of_Revolutionary_Warfare"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:31.592617+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Science of Revolutionary Warfare (in German: Revolutionäre Kriegswissenschaft) is a revolutionary manual written by the anarchist militant Johann Most in 1885. Being the first revolutionary manual in history, it is a work in which the author sought to promote the idea of propaganda by the deed, but also and especially to provide methods for carrying it out, such as manufacturing explosives, poisons, incendiary materials, invisible ink, or other "recipes". Most distinguished himself by drawing most of his information from publicly available sources of his time and by trying to offer affordable and practical methods for his contemporaries.
|
||||
The work innovated on numerous points of revolutionary and terrorist strategy but became a textbook case representing anarchist terrorism, which served to criminalize all anarchists. For instance, it was used during the trial following the Haymarket Square massacre to accuse anarchists of belonging to a terrorist conspiracy. This difficult legacy, coupled with the very approximate nature of the methods used to make explosives like dynamite, gave this text a particular status among anarchists.
|
||||
The text was updated by the Italian anarchist Luigi Galleani in La Salute è in voi (1906), a work aiming to address the issues raised by Most's manual and propose more effective approaches.
|
||||
|
||||
== History ==
|
||||
In the 19th century, anarchism emerged and took shape in Europe before spreading. Anarchists advocate a struggle against all forms of domination perceived as unjust including economic domination brought forth by capitalism. They are particularly opposed to the State, seen as the organization that legitimizes a good number of these dominations through its police, army and propaganda.
|
||||
In the late 1870s, anarchists developed the strategy of propaganda of the deed, aiming to disseminate anarchist ideas directly through action, bypassing discourse, and to ignite the Revolution through actions that would incite the people to revolt. Figures in the anarchist movement such as Peter Kropotkin, Errico Malatesta, Andrea Costa, and Carlo Cafiero extensively developed this strategy. In 1879, it was adopted by the congress of the Jura Federation in La Chaux-de-Fonds. It gained renewed centrality at the International Congresses of Paris and London in May and July 1881.
|
||||
Generally, and particularly in Germany and the United States, one of the first major proponents and theorists of this strategy was Johann Most (1846-1906). The anarchist was convinced of the relevance of using this strategy, and in the newspaper he organized, Freiheit, he very strongly advocated for the use of propaganda of the deed starting in 1880. For example, he offered recipes for creating various kinds of bombs, incendiary devices, poisons, and so on. In one of the statements noted by Andrew R. Carlson as indicative of this support, he declared:
|
||||
|
||||
We will murder those who must be killed in order to be free... We do not dispute over whether it is right or wrong. Say what you will, do what you do, but the victor is right. Comrades of Freiheit, we say murder the murderers. Rescue mankind through blood, iron, poison, and dynamite.
|
||||
In 1884, after discreetly engaging himself in a pyrotechnics factory, he learned how to make dynamite and planned to send it to several anarchist groups in Europe—but he was quickly dissuaded by the impossibility of the task. He therefore resolved to compile some of the literature he had written on the subject of propaganda of the deed, assembling it into this seventy-four-page work.
|
||||
|
||||
== The Science of Revolutionary Warfare ==
|
||||
|
||||
=== Goals ===
|
||||
The text's goal is to reach the largest possible number of people, providing them with a manual accessible even to the poorest, enabling them to become politicized and fight. Most, like other anarchists, believed that the working class and peasants learning science, especially chemistry, was an effective way to combat the state's unequal armaments. In this regard, a bomb, poison or these methods were seen as tools to bridge the gap between the state's weaponry and that of the oppressed.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Contents ===
|
||||
|
||||
The text was published in 1885 and bore the full title of The Science of Revolutionary Warfare: A Manual of Instruction in the Use and Preparation of Nitroglycerine, Dynamite, Gun-Cotton, Fulminating Mercury, Bombs, Fuses, Poisons, etc.
|
||||
Among all the "recipes" in the book, the author stood out for his focus on offering methods using affordable and readily available raw materials, making it some sort of "DIY guide". Most also included information he gleaned from official publications, such as reports on explosions, and used mostly public processes to avoid censorship.
|
||||
Among these "recipes", one finds a number for making various products, including explosives like dynamite. Most himself stated in the work that his methods for dynamite were approximate and that it was better to steal it directly, which ensured its reliability, an advice followed by other anarchists who used the manual. He also provided advice on how to discreetly set fire to one's own residence to collect insurance money.
|
||||
The book wasn't limited to explosives; it also provided ways to make invisible ink, flammable products sometimes compared to Molotov cocktails, and numerous methods for using poison, including creating it and applying it to bullets, blades, or nails. Finally, it focused on the possibility of poisoning the wealthy by adding certain products to their food, for instance, if the person were serving the dishes.
|
||||
|
||||
== Legacy and nuances ==
|
||||
|
||||
=== General influences ===
|
||||
The Science of Revolutionary Warfare is the first revolutionary manual in history. While other manuals for making explosives existed before it in scientific and specialized literature, Most innovated on several points. This includes not only his presentation style but also some of the recipes and ideas he developed, which are sometimes considered avant-garde for their time.
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Science of Revolutionary Warfare"
|
||||
chunk: 2/2
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Science_of_Revolutionary_Warfare"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:31.592617+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
=== Influence, criminalization, and criticisms among anarchists ===
|
||||
Johann Most's The Science of Revolutionary Warfare was indeed used by some anarchists in the early 1880s and 1890s, but its methods for producing explosives were quickly noted for being highly approximate. For example, Emma Goldman stated that she and Alexander Berkman attempted to follow the book's instructions for making bombs without success.
|
||||
Although it was the first anarchist work of its kind, it was quickly denounced within anarchist circles, not only for these practical problems but also because it became a textbook case representing anarchist terrorism. This served to criminalize all anarchists, even those who didn't support propaganda of the deed, by allowing the invocation of "anarchist terrorist literature". For instance, during the trial following the Haymarket Square massacre, the book was used by the U.S. police to justify their actions and criminalize the victims. Most himself was gradually viewed with increasing distance by a number of anarchists. He never truly subscribed to anarcho-communism, and his stances were sometimes criticized, especially as the strategy of propaganda of the deed itself began to be questioned. As a result, the work holds an ambiguous legacy among anarchists.
|
||||
Despite this, it was also adopted as a model by certain anarchists, such as Luigi Galleani, author of La Salute è in voi in 1906, an updated version of Most's work intended to make it more relevant and effective.
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
== Bibliography ==
|
||||
Baker, Zoe (2023), Means And Ends: The Revolutionary Practice of Anarchism in Europe and the United States (PDF), Chico, CA: AK Press Distribution, ISBN 978-1-84935-498-1
|
||||
Carlson, Andrew R. (1972), Anarchism in Germany (PDF), The Scarecrow Press, ISBN 0-8 108-0484-0
|
||||
Eisenzweig, Uri (2001). Fictions de l'anarchisme [Fictions of anarchism] (in French). France: C. Bourgois. ISBN 2-267-01570-6.
|
||||
Gage, Beverly (2009), The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in Its First Age of Terror, Oxford: Oxford University Press (OUP), ISBN 978-0-19-514824-4
|
||||
Jourdain, Edouard (2013). L'anarchisme [Anarchism]. Paris: La Découverte. ISBN 978-2-7071-9091-8.
|
||||
Larabee, Ann (2015), The Wrong Hands : Popular Weapons Manuals and Their Historic Challenges to a Democratic Society, Oxford: Oxford University Press (OUP)
|
||||
Most, Johann (1978). The Science of Revolutionary Warfare. The Combat Bookshelf. Phoenix, AZ: Desert Publications. ISBN 978-0879472115.
|
||||
Ward, Colin (2004). Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press (OUP).
|
||||
|
||||
== Further reading ==
|
||||
The Science of Revolutionary Warfare available online on Wikimedia Commons (original version)
|
||||
23
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Lives_of_Colour-0.md
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23
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Lives_of_Colour-0.md
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@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Secret Lives of Colour"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Lives_of_Colour"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:43.677317+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Secret Lives of Colour is a 2016 non-fiction book by British writer Kassia St. Clair which explores the cultural and social history of colours. The book, which is based on a column St. Clair writes for British magazine Elle Decoration, is organized in a series of chapters by color, arranged from white to black. Each chapter is composed of short, two to four page, essays on different shades of its respective color, discussing an interesting aspect of science, history, art, or culture relating to the shade. There are a total of 75 essays in the book. Each page is bordered by a stripe of the color it discusses for easy visual identification, even when the book is closed.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
The book was generally well-received by critics. NPR listed it on its Best Books of 2017 list. Lily Le Brun of The Economist found the book's design visually appealing and helpful for referencing. Cathy Dillon of The Irish Times called it "perfect gift for a colour enthusiast". Laura J. Snyder of The Wall Street Journal wrote that it brought the history of both science and art "into vivid relief."
|
||||
Critics responded particularly well to the breadth of subjects discussed. Claire Voon of Hyperallergic found it "diligently researched," and remarked on the topical diversity of the various essays. Ross Stewart of Chemistry World described the vignette structure as an "effective...conceit" allowing St. Clair to "dance effortlessly through an astonishing range of subjects." Lucy Watson's review in the Financial Times was more critical, describing the book as "somewhat fragmented," and expressing disappointment that the book focused on anecdotes without discussing the classification of color as a broad topic.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
Millennial grey
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
26
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Testimony_of_the_Suns-0.md
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26
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Testimony_of_the_Suns-0.md
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@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Testimony of the Suns"
|
||||
chunk: 1/9
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Testimony_of_the_Suns"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:34:49.600951+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
"The Testimony of the Suns" is a lengthy astronomical poem by American poet and playwright George Sterling that combines elements of science, fantasy, science fiction, and philosophy. Literary historian S. T. Joshi called it Sterling's "longest poem and one of his greatest." Upon the poem's first publication, critic Ambrose Bierce wrote in the New York American: "...its publication is an event of capital importance. Written in French and published in Paris, it would stir the very stones in the streets. ...It is nothing but literature—nothing but the most notable utterance that has been heard in our Western World since the great heart of Poe was broken against the adamant of his country's inattention."
|
||||
The unusual poem was too long for magazines and was rejected by book publishers, so in 1903 Sterling self-published it in his first book, The Testimony of the Suns and Other Poems. When his book was released, Sterling's poems had been published in newspapers and magazines for seven years. The Washington Post had published his first important poem, and the prestigious national magazine Harper's Monthly had published another Sterling poem, but "The Testimony of the Suns" marked the first time Sterling's poetry attracted nationwide attention from critics. The national critical success of "The Testimony of the Suns" established Sterling's career as a poet.
|
||||
|
||||
== Creation of the poem ==
|
||||
|
||||
=== Influences on "The Testimony of the Suns" ===
|
||||
Sterling learned to love astronomy because "my dear dead father was greatly interested in it, and I've spent many hours on the house-top with him and his telescope." He marveled at planets, stars, and galaxies—apparently resting in peace but actually slowly and endlessly colliding with and destroying each other.
|
||||
Another inspiration to Sterling was British author H. G. Wells, to whom he wrote: "I feel so far I've done only one thing worth of any one's attention—an astronomical poem I call ‘The Testimony of the Suns', written under the inspiration of your many references to the stars, notably that tremendous thing entitled ‘Under the Knife.' They (your references) thrill me like great poetry. No one loves them as I do. The sleeper gazing on the unchanged constellations—the Time Traveller aware of the star-drift [in Wells' novel The Time Machine]—how they make me ache!" Wells' short story "Under the Knife" tells of a man under anesthesia for surgery who dies on the operating table. His consciousness floats out of his body, away from Earth, beyond our galaxy. Before the man is brought back to life, he sees our entire universe as a speck in an immense hand.
|
||||
Sterling was an avid reader of Edgar Allan Poe's writings, so Poe's last book Eureka: A Prose Poem may have influenced "The Testimony of the Suns." Historians of science have claimed that in Eureka Poe was the first person to conceive a Newtonian evolving universe in which stars and galaxies are collapsing together.
|
||||
Thomas Benediktsson in his book George Sterling said the poem was also influenced by German scientist-philosopher Ernst Haeckel's 1899 book Die Welträthsel (published in America as The Riddle of the Universe).
|
||||
|
||||
=== Writing process and reactions from friends ===
|
||||
Sometime after December 16, 1901, Sterling began to write a long poem depicting the galaxies and stars of "the stellar universe at strife, when to the eye it is a symbol of such peace and changelessness ...It surely is a war if the cosmic processes are viewed as a whole."
|
||||
Sterling wrote his poem during morning commutes to work from his house in Piedmont, writing in his head while riding one of his uncle Frank C. Havens' ferryboats across the bay to San Francisco, then polishing his verses during his twelve-minute walk from the Ferry Building up Market Street to Uncle Frank's corporate headquarters at 14 Sansome Street. Not until Sterling reached his large office and sat at his mammoth rolltop desk did he commit that morning's words to paper. His long poem's draft in his penciled neat handwriting eventually filled six small notebooks.
|
||||
In early 1902 Sterling sent his untitled, not-yet-completed "star poem" to his mentor, the author and critic Ambrose Bierce. Bierce responded: "Where are you going to stop?—I mean at what stage of development? ...you are advancing at a stupendous rate. This last beats any and all that went before—or I am bewitched and befuddled. I dare not trust myself to say what I think of it. In manner it is great, but the greatness of the theme!—that is beyond anything. It is a new field—the broadest yet discovered. ...You must make it your domain. You shall be the poet of the skies, the prophet of the suns."
|
||||
Sterling worked on his star poem for more than a year, expanding it, sending drafts to Bierce for comments, and polishing every stanza. He showed a draft to astronomer Garrett P. Serviss to make sure his scientific terms and concepts were accurate. In February 1903, Sterling finally finished "The Testimony of the Suns." It was 644 lines long, far too lengthy for any magazine. That month Sterling shared his poem with his closest friend, Jack London. Five years later London remembered how he felt when he first read the star poem. He wrote how Martin (a character London based on himself) echoed his own response after reading a similar star poem (written by a character London based on Sterling). London sneaks in Sterling's title "The Testimony of the Suns" in his fifth sentence below:
|
||||
38
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Testimony_of_the_Suns-1.md
Normal file
38
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Testimony_of_the_Suns-1.md
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@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Testimony of the Suns"
|
||||
chunk: 2/9
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Testimony_of_the_Suns"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:34:49.600951+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
It was perfect art. Form triumphed over substance, if triumph it could be called where the last conceivable atom of substance had found expression in so perfect construction as to make Martin's head swim with delight, to put passionate tears into his eyes, and to send chills creeping up and down his back. It was a long poem of six or seven hundred lines, and it was a fantastic, amazing, unearthly thing. It was terrific, impossible; and yet there it was, scrawled in black ink across the sheets of paper. It dealt with man and his soul-gropings in their ultimate terms, plumbing the abysses of space for the testimony of remotest suns and rainbow spectrums. It was a mad orgy of imagination ...The poem swung in majestic rhythm to the cool tumult of interstellar conflict, to the onset of starry hosts, to the impact of cold suns and the flaming up of nebulae in the darkened void; and through it all, unceasing and faint, like a silver shuttle, ran the frail, piping voice of man, a querulous chip amid the screaming of planets and the crash of systems.
|
||||
"There is nothing like it in literature," Martin said, when at last he was able to speak. "It's wonderful!—wonderful! It has gone to my head. I am drunken with it. ...I know I'm making a fool of myself, but the thing has obsessed me."
|
||||
In 1904, when Alexander M. Robertson published a second edition of Sterling's book The Testimony of the Suns and Other Poems, the poet made changes to the texts of "The Testimony of the Suns," creating a slightly different second version. In the book's 1907 third edition he made a few more changes. When Sterling prepared his star poem for inclusion in his 1923 Selected Poems collection, he changed his first line from "The winter sunset fronts the North...." to "The heavens darken in the North...." He changed appearances of the word "deems" to "thinks" or "dreams." He made more than twenty other changes, resulting in his fourth and final version of "The Testimony of the Suns."
|
||||
|
||||
== Subjects and structure of the poem ==
|
||||
During the time Sterling was writing "The Testimony of the Suns," his poem's subject seemed to change. Two-and-a-half months into writing it, he said: "the whole poem will be on life, or rather the human portion of life." Two-and-a-half weeks later he explained: "As for God, I fear I'll have to leave him in. The poem being a polemic against those believing in Him, His presence was necessary." Three months after that: "First, I hope it will be clear enough to the intellectual reader that my invocation to the stars is only an allegory of man's search of the universe for the secret of life ..."
|
||||
Sterling wrote "The Testimony of the Suns" using accentual-syllabic verse in iambic tetrameter rhythm, structured as four-line stanzas using the ABBA rhyme format. The same structure was used by Alfred, Lord Tennyson for his famous poem "In Memoriam A.H.H.," which led some critics to compare Sterling to Tennyson.
|
||||
Sterling divided his long poem into three sections: an opening epigraph quoted from an Ambrose Bierce poem, and two parts labeled "I" and "II." The three sections together total 162 quatrains, or 651 lines including two dates and the epigraph's attribution to Bierce.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Opening quotation ===
|
||||
The opening epigraph quotes four lines from Ambrose Bierce's 1888 poem "Invocation," which Sterling later called Bierce's "one great poem, as noble an invocation as we have heard this side of the Atlantic."
|
||||
|
||||
=== Part I ===
|
||||
"Part I describes the ‘war' of the stars in the cosmos," says Thomas E. Benediktsson in George Sterling. "The poem opens with a contrast between the perspective of ‘Time,' or the temporal vision of man, and ‘Eternity,' or the absolute vision of universal law. ‘In the eyes of time,' then, the evening skies seem peaceful, intransigent, and beyond all human conflict. But to the eyes of Eternity, the skies are a vast battleground: the stars are at war; their movements are such that one will invariably collide with another, causing it to disintegrate into a nebula or dead star. In the eternal flux of the cosmos, however, nebulae eventually evolve into new stars. Thus, there is an external process of creation and destruction in the heavens, quite remote from human concerns, and so alien to human time that it takes a supreme intellectual effort even to conceptualize it."
|
||||
As Benediktsson points out, when Sterling uses the word "time," his meaning can often be clarified by substituting the word "man." For example, here are the opening lines of Part I:
|
||||
|
||||
The heavens darken in the North....
|
||||
The light deserts the quiet sky....
|
||||
From their far gates how silently
|
||||
The stars of evening tremble forth!
|
||||
Time, to thy sight what peace they share
|
||||
On Night's inviolable breast!
|
||||
Remote in solitudes of rest,
|
||||
Afar from human change or care.
|
||||
|
||||
By mentally changing the fifth line to "Man, to thy sight what peace they share," the stanza's meaning becomes more clear.
|
||||
Many of the Part I stanzas are speeches addressed to different personified stars. They can seem repetitive, almost ritualized. Benediktsson explains that "each of these is a slight variation on the same expression of wonder at the immense scope and mystery of the conflict."
|
||||
Part I consists of 80 quatrains. It ends with the date "December, 1901." This is the month when Sterling began to write his as-yet-untitled star poem.
|
||||
34
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|
||||
title: "The Testimony of the Suns"
|
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chunk: 3/9
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source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Testimony_of_the_Suns"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:34:49.600951+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
=== Part II ===
|
||||
If Part I portrays an immense universe of galaxies and stars colliding in never-ending conflict, "...Part II attempts to relate human life to that universal war. ...Sterling intends to develop further the pathos of human attempts to anthropomorphize the universe. ...Sterling goes on at length to discuss the folly and vanity of those men who try to question the laws of the universe as science has revealed them. The delusions that men fall prey to can be grouped into two categories: the speculations that mankind is eternal, and the 'dream of Faith' that there is life beyond death. These are never to be fulfilled, because law is unalterable and is subject to the same law of destruction that controls the destinies of stars. Even if there is an apocalypse for man, it will certainly not bring the universe to an end."
|
||||
Part II consists of 81 quatrains. It ends with the date "February, 1902." Sterling's reason for including this date is unknown. It is neither the date Sterling started Part II nor when he finished it.
|
||||
|
||||
== Book appearances ==
|
||||
In spite of critical acclaim for "The Testimony of the Suns," because of the poem's length it has rarely appeared in books.
|
||||
|
||||
=== 1903 self-published first edition ===
|
||||
When Sterling finished "The Testimony of the Suns" he grouped it with 43 shorter poems and submitted his collection to book publishers. All rejected it. Sterling decided to publish his book himself while also paying to publish Shapes of Clay, a collection of poems by Bierce. Sterling selected Charles Murdock, a friend of his uncle Frank C. Havens, as his book printer. To handle book marketing and sales, he hired William E. Wood, a publicist with Hale Brothers department stores in San Jose. Wood knew a little about the book business because he had once worked for a San Francisco bookstore.
|
||||
Sterling published his book The Testimony of the Suns and Other Poems under Wood's name in November 1903. On Christmas Eve, Sterling inscribed a copy "To our genius, Jack London: Here's my book, my heart you have already."
|
||||
Evidence of quantity published for the first edition of The Testimony of the Suns varies from 500 to 650 copies. Whatever the quantity, the first edition sold out quickly.
|
||||
|
||||
=== 1904 second edition ===
|
||||
Scotsman Alexander M. Robertson owned one of San Francisco's leading bookstores and had started a small publishing company. He and Sterling signed an agreement to publish a second edition of The Testimony of the Suns and Other Poems, which Robertson published in November, 1904. He printed 1,000 copies of the book but sales were slow. In April 1906, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire burned Robertson's bookstore building to the ground. He had sold about 200 copies of the second edition; all others were destroyed, making it the rarest of the three The Testimony of the Suns editions.
|
||||
|
||||
=== 1907 third edition ===
|
||||
After Robertson recovered from the earthquake and fire, he published a third edition of The Testimony of the Suns and Other Poems. Sterling's friend Herman George Scheffauer drew new astronomical art for the third edition's front cover and dust jacket. (The first two editions had no dust jacket). Robertson bound 920 copies of the third edition and published it in October 1907.
|
||||
|
||||
=== 1923, 1970, and 1974 Selected Poems ===
|
||||
New York publisher Henry Holt and Company signed Sterling to select a bookful of poems from his twenty-five years as a poet. Sterling included "The Testimony of the Suns," but he revised it. He wrote a new first line. He also remembered critic Harriet Monroe lambasting "the worst excesses" in his poem's language: "he never thinks—he deems," she said. So he replaced all "deems" in his poem with "thinks" or "dreams." He modernized "hath" to "has" but did not update "ye" to "you" nor "thy" to "your." He made other changes as well. This fourth and final version of his star poem Sterling placed in Selected Poems as the last poem.
|
||||
Selected Poems was eventually printed by four different publishers based in four different cities: New York: Henry Holt, 1923; San Francisco: A. M. Robertson, 1923; St. Clair Shores, Michigan: Scholarly Press, 1970; and [Irvine, California]: Reprint Services Corp., 1974.
|
||||
|
||||
=== 1927 annotated facsimile edition ===
|
||||
Thirteen months after Sterling's November 1926 death, the prestigious Book Club of California published an oversize (14+5⁄8 by 9+1⁄2 in or 37 by 24 cm) volume as a beautifully-designed tribute. The Testimony of the Suns: Including Comments, Suggestions, and Annotations by Ambrose Bierce: A Facsimile of the Original Typewritten Manuscript with the Marginal Notes by George Sterling in Black Ink and the Comments by Ambrose Bierce in Red Ink (San Francisco: Book Club of California, 1927) also included an introduction by author, historian, and Book Club secretary Oscar Lewis and "A Memoir of Ambrose Bierce" by Albert Bender. Historian David Magee said: "The poet was a protege of Ambrose Bierce whose annotations and suggestions, reproduced here in facsimile, show how closely student and mentor worked together. Comparison of the manuscript and printed text proves that Sterling abided by most of Bierce's advice." The limited edition of 300 copies quickly sold out.
|
||||
16
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title: "The Testimony of the Suns"
|
||||
chunk: 4/9
|
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source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Testimony_of_the_Suns"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:34:49.600951+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
=== 2003 and 2013 anthologies ===
|
||||
The third version of "The Testimony of the Suns" was included in the George Sterling anthology, The Thirst of Satan: Poems of Fantasy and Terror, S. T. Joshi, ed. (New York: Hippocampus Press, 2003), pp. 23–47.
|
||||
The final version of "The Testimony of the Suns" (the one from Selected Poems) appeared in George Sterling, Complete Poetry, S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, eds. (New York: Hippocampus Press, 2013), volume 1, pp. 17–34. In the poem's third line, the word "from" is mistakenly printed as "foam." Extensive notes on the poem appear in volume 2, pp. 752–754. The notes claim that one of the three The Testimony of the Suns and Other Poems versions was used as the source for the text, but that is not accurate. The text presented in Complete Poetry comes from Sterling's Selected Poems.
|
||||
|
||||
=== 2022 bilingual critical edition ===
|
||||
The poem is printed in both English and Spanish on facing pages and is annotated in George Sterling, El Testimonio de los Soles y Otros Poemas: Edicióne Crítica y Bilingüe, Ariadna García Carreño, ed. and translator (Madrid: Editorial Verbum, 2022), pp. 100–149. The English text comes from the third edition of The Testimony of the Suns and Other Poems.
|
||||
25
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title: "The Testimony of the Suns"
|
||||
chunk: 5/9
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source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Testimony_of_the_Suns"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:34:49.600951+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
== Initial critical responses ==
|
||||
William E. Wood, Sterling's employee for the first edition of The Testimony of the Suns and Other Poems, was a publicist. He knew how to get a good mailing list to send review copies to book reviewers. Beginning in December 1903, reviews appeared in dozens of newspapers and magazines across the country. Some reviews were enthusiastic and some were mixed.
|
||||
The first review appeared in William Randolph Hearst's newspaper, the New York American. Sterling's mentor Ambrose Bierce wrote of Sterling's "majestic poem'": "Doubtless it will make no impression on a country that devours Mr. Riley. Yet its publication is an event of capital importance. Written in French and published in Paris, it would stir the very stones in the streets. ...It is nothing but literature—nothing but the most notable utterance that has been heard in our Western World since the great heart of Poe was broken against the adamant of his country's inattention." Bierce's passionate review was reprinted in the New York Evening Journal, the San Francisco Examiner, and in Sterling's birthplace newspaper, the Sag Harbor Corrector.
|
||||
The New York Times' admiration was more muted: "In The Testimony of the Suns and Other Poems, by George Sterling, ...there is a nice sense of personal vision and thoughtful contemplation, and also there is a touch of intellectual passion that gives to the author's mental attitude toward common things the delicate dignity and reserve in utterance most grateful to the mind weary of an overflow of sentiment. Here again the longer poems [such as "The Testimony of the Suns"] are the best and the most characteristic ..." The Times review ended: "...the presence of the moral quality at the source of Mr. Sterling's poetry is what gives it the note of character that promises permanence. And he has been able to deliver his message without contortions of style. In his management of his simple metres and in his discriminating use of words fitted to his thought he gives the pleasure that can be gained only from such respectful use of the intellectual instrument."
|
||||
The poem also impressed Book News Monthly, a national magazine for the book business: "...the volume The Testimony of the Suns and Other Poems, written by George Sterling, ...in every part rings true to the nature of the man. The poems are often of great lyrical beauty and always have some music in them. The "Testimony of the Sun[s]," which gives the book its name, while it has many good qualities is surpassed by the ode to "Music" ...The volume has in it an unspeakable note of sadness, which adds greatly to its appealing powers, and we feel that here is a man who has suffered and conquered nobly." A second review added: "Mr. Sterling's verse is suffused with sense of the worth and dignity of the poet's work. His has the thought-enkindled line. There is metrical instinct. A little excess of imagery."
|
||||
The Atlanta Constitution wrote: "There is no doubt at all about the genius of George Sterling, author of "The Testimony of the Suns" ...In Mr. Sterling's work there is much that recalls Tennyson—his measure, and, at times, his imagery, but he's original enough, for all that."
|
||||
The New York Evening Post commented on the second edition of Sterling's book: "It boots not that "The Testimony of the Suns" is the most distinguished poetic work produced in the West in years. It is a miracle that any work of poetry whatsoever should require reprinting within six months. The wonder grows when one considers that "The Testimony of the Suns," if it is anything, it is reserved, lofty, dignified, severe—and, to the general [public], cryptic. As readers who recall the review of the Evening Post remember, the poem concerns the testimony of astronomical science as to the personal immortality of man. The conclusion is reached that man may only dream of personal immortality—may dream in futility eternal. ...Is there not ‘hope for poetry' when second editions are required for such as this?"
|
||||
The Lincoln Nebraska State Journal reported: "It has been said by the critics that this age is without real poets; that the living writers of verse cannot approach the majestic, soul-uplifting, hair-curling heights attained by the artists of old whose scope of thought may only be apprehended by the tutored mind. ...Look again—such a poet lives, and his home is in California. ...And while "the testimony of the suns" yields no satisfying solution of the great problem of life and death, we are forced to admit that in style and diction it is bully good poetry."
|
||||
From Kentucky, the Louisville Courier-Journal wrote: "The Testimony of the Suns and Other Poems, by George Sterling, is a volume of poems of more than common merit. While many of them are in the minor key, other chords ring true and pure, their author is possessed of the genuine poetic fire."
|
||||
The Sag Harbor Corrector's lengthy review not only told how a reviewer felt about the poem but also described its structure: "It was reserved for Sterling to enshrine in poetry the cosmic process of nature and to send his mind forth to the farthest stars and get from them, if possible, some light as to the origin and destiny of the universe. The poem begins with these beautiful lines: [First two stanzas are reprinted.] ...The second part of the poem is alive to the timelessness of eternity. It sings of the burning out of the stars, of their ashen bulks and of the dark that will replace the rays of Orion when its suns have died. The poet looks far for a divine revelation but is rewarded by the old-time question: "Canst thou by searching find out God?" ...The poet craves from the silence of the star [the] solution of its mystery, and the poem ends:
|
||||
|
||||
And crave, unanswered, till denied
|
||||
By cosmic gloom and stellar glare,
|
||||
The brains are dust that bore the pray'r,
|
||||
And dust the yearning lips that cried."
|
||||
32
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||||
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|
||||
title: "The Testimony of the Suns"
|
||||
chunk: 6/9
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Testimony_of_the_Suns"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:34:49.600951+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The magazine Impressions Quarterly printed a four-page review of Sterling's book that began enthusiastically but ended by disagreeing with Sterling's views of God and of humanity's insignificance in the cosmos and eternity:
|
||||
|
||||
A poet of the first magnitude has risen. We cannot judge or criticize him by casual reading, nor get to the full depth of his meaning without a good deal of thought on our part, for this man is one of the great poets. ...We are made to feel at once the immensity and the minuteness of our thinking souls, and made to grasp the finiteness of the expanse of the starlit heavens, and, more than all, the encircling vastness of God.
|
||||
These splendid excursions of the poet are for the most part found in the title poem of the collection, "The Testimony of the Suns," in which the questions of Life and the Purpose of Life are asked of the great stars, which give no answer. The theme is black and without hope, and we are depressed by despair while traversing the spaces of the stars and learning their reality and magnitude ...
|
||||
But the resonant stanzas fill us with wonder; the rolling of the words, massive and thunderous, is suggestive of the rotundity of Virgil. ...This poem, "The Testimony of the Suns," is almost very great, and the production of a poet of a high order ....It is to be regretted that many stanzas are marred by the use of uncouth words, whose frequent repetitions throughout the book point to their being his "pet words." Nevertheless, we ought to forgive Mr. Sterling all his whimsical words and hard names in glad thankfulness for his many noble stanzas, so full of Miltonic grandeur, and for his earnest faith in the great God—a faith told with a majesty of expression reminding us of the Book of Job.
|
||||
|
||||
His philosophy is, however, appalling rather than convincing, and omits that one all-important step in the evolution of the body of man from the nebula, which step is the breathing into him the breath of Life. ...In "The Testimony of the Suns," the hopeless mystery of Life, from the entirely materialistic point of view, is clearly stated in lines of surpassing beauty and power, even though we take a happier view of it than the closing stanzas."
|
||||
That Impressions Quarterly review was commented upon by other magazines and newspapers. In "Almost a Very Great Poet Is Discovered," the Minneapolis Journal said: "A new and great—'almost very great'—poet has been discovered by Impressions Quarterly. ...Mr. Sterling, it seems, ...falls short of the insight which characterizes the very great poets, but then Mr. Sterling is only ‘almost very great'." The magazine Godwin's Weekly said the Impressions Quarterly "reviewer hails the California bard as a poet of the first magnitude, which appears to be rather too glowing an appreciation, although there can be no question of the poet's distinctive gifts as a singer of melodious songs."
|
||||
One unusual form of criticism came from Clarence E. Eddy, a prospector, poet, reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune, and editor and publisher of the Roosevelt, Idaho Thunder Mountain News. Eddy wrote a poem, "To the Singer of the Suns," which praised Sterling and "The Testimony of the Suns":
|
||||
|
||||
No clarion note so clear and strong
|
||||
As is this mighty voice of thine,
|
||||
And ne'er before has mortal song
|
||||
Ascended nearer the divine.
|
||||
|
||||
But Eddy believed that Sterling's poem failed because:
|
||||
|
||||
Beyond unnumbered suns it sings,
|
||||
But sobs at last by gulfs of night
|
||||
In weariness it folds its wings ...
|
||||
|
||||
Eddy later expanded his poem's points in a lengthy prose review, stating that Sterling "is essentially a poet of humanity, but, as a prelude, sings of the heavens; he diverts us from our littleness and the lusts of earth to contemplate all of God's great handiwork that human reason can grasp. The myriad voices of the little singers and daily rhym[e]sters are lulled and lost in the deep tones of this mighty singer of the new day, who has poured the fruition of the sciences and the centuries of thought into a poem, but much of the greatness of this poem is due to the awful splendor of its theme." But Sterling's "Testimony" did not satisfy Eddy: "Thus contemplating the vast wonders and questioning the mysteries of creation, and knowing man's craving for immortality, the poet does not give us the final word of hope for which we hunger, and it is this, if anything, that the great poem fails. One lays the book down with a sense of bereavement, for though its music has sweep upon the heart-strings and its majesty has borne the mind amid the systems of unnumbered suns, it ceases at last in a sob."
|
||||
19
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|
||||
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|
||||
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|
||||
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|
||||
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|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:34:49.600951+00:00"
|
||||
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|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Sterling was chosen as one of the San Francisco's six top literary lights by the committee creating the San Francisco pavilion for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. He sat for a bas relief portrait by sculptor Robert Ingersoll Aitken, best known today for his sculptures on the United States Supreme Court building. Aitken's sculpture of Sterling was displayed at the World's Fair. Today Aitken's sculpture of Sterling is on permanent display in the Local History Department of the Harrison Memorial Library in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.
|
||||
Not all reviewers approved of Sterling's poem and book. Some reviews were mixed, but the qualities reviewers disliked varied. For example, the Buffalo [New York] Courier said: "Th[a]t author shows considerable power of imagination and no little feeling, but the thought is not always so plain as one might wish. Then, too, the meter used seems at times halting." In Missouri, the St. Louis Republic was not impressed: "In short, Mr. Sterling is enjoyable after you have past the ‘choral trumpet's gleam' and the ‘doubting vans,' and passed through the mystic mistiness of the ‘Suns' poem and learned to brush away some of the ‘fine writing' and find the deeper truth and beauty. Why shouldn't a poet cultivate lucidity? Is poetry any the less poetry for being plain? Doesn't impressionism fail of its mission without poignancy, without saliency, without definite idea?" Poet Ridgely Torrence wrote in the national magazine Critic that "The Testimony of the Suns, by George Sterling, contains some excellent verse. ...Mr. Sterling really gives the impression of a certain largeness of utterance here and there in single lines and purple patches, but he fails in the main seemingly from the lack of a sense of humor. His voice is deeply keyed, but he is prone either to become wordy or sing of the commonplace and trite themes in so mighty a voice and with such a solemn visage that he leads us to smile rather than to wonder with appreciation."
|
||||
When The Testimony of the Suns and Other Poems was first published, Sterling's poems had appeared in newspapers and magazines for seven years. The Washington Post had published his first important poem, and the prestigious national magazine Harper's Monthly had published another Sterling poem, but "The Testimony of the Suns" marked the first time Sterling's poetry attracted nationwide attention from critics. (Several more "Testimony" reviews appeared but are not quoted in this Wikipedia article.) The critical success of "The Testimony of the Suns" established Sterling's career as a poet. Almost all of Sterling's subsequent books received nationwide attention from magazines and newspapers.
|
||||
|
||||
The San Francisco Examiner ran a full-page interview of Sterling by eminent critic Ashton Stevens. Two portraits illustrated the interview, one showing Sterling at his desk in the Realty Syndicate offices, the other comparing him to Dante. Sterling explained his feelings about the national critical response: "I feel like a man that had had a bushel of diamonds poured on his head. Bierce, you know, trained me to look for anything but—well, for anything but praise. Bierce trained us two—Scheffauer, like myself, is a pupil of Bierce's; ...to expect only indifference; to regard what we wrote as burned, so far as the world is concerned; just so much exercise, mental athletics. He warned us not to be like most youngster poets, always wanting to pose in the center of the limelight. He said that wise poets write for one another. ...I had no idea that any sort of recognition could come so soon—not that all of my book is of much account; I don't say that there is anything really good in it but ‘The Testimony of the Suns'."
|
||||
|
||||
== Unpopularity predicted ==
|
||||
Some critics admired "The Testimony of the Suns" but accurately predicted that Sterling's poem would not become a popular favorite. In Chicago, one reviewer explained: "...let me commend ‘The Testimony of the Suns,' Sterling's chef d'oeuvre, and recall Ambrose Bierce's magnificent compliment: ‘ ‘The Testimony of the Suns' is nothing but literature—nothing but the greatest poem written in America since the great heart of Poe was broken against the adamant of his country's inattention. Written in France and published in Paris, it would move the very stones in the street.' Quite so, but written in American and published in San Francisco, it has attracted the attention of the infinitesimally few—the few, the happy few, the band of brothers, who really care for art, and recognize it whether the medium be painting, poetry, or our own august mystery. ...The bourgeois—whose idea of a great poet is Riley or Frank Stanton[—]have found Sterling's tremendous achievement above and beyond them. What they want is the jingleman."
|
||||
A Nevada-based critic agreed, stating in a joint review of Sterling's book and Poems of Both Worlds by Herman George Scheffauer: "...their work is fired over the heads of the masses and so filled with erudition as not to strike the popular fancy. It is the work of the head more than the work of the heart. Such poems are for the learned few and not for the popular middle classes who like the sympathetic verse of Bobbie Burns."
|
||||
36
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||||
title: "The Testimony of the Suns"
|
||||
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|
||||
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|
||||
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|
||||
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|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:34:49.600951+00:00"
|
||||
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|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
== Criticism after the San Francisco earthquake ==
|
||||
After the April 18, 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, newspapers and magazines across the country published eulogies to the memories of a San Francisco that no longer was. Some mentioned Sterling. In National Magazine, St. Louis editor William Maron Reedy said: "George Sterling wrote there the best book of verse of the last four years, The Testimony of the Suns."
|
||||
Ambrose Bierce continued to express high regard for "The Testimony of the Suns." In 1907 he wrote: "Of that work I have the temerity to think that in both subject and art it nicks the rock as high as anything of the generation of Tennyson, and a good deal higher than anything of the generation of Kipling ...,"
|
||||
Alexander Robertson published the third edition of The Testimony of the Suns and Other Poems in late 1907. The editor of Current Literature thought the new edition noteworthy enough to print 24 stanzas from the poem, explaining: "...the title poem, while it is twice as long and thrice as obscure as it ought to be, contains passages of exalted feeling and cosmic thought that nearly sweep one off his feet at times. Briefly put, the testimony of the suns is to the effect that man's life is but a passing incident in the universe and that personal immortality is a vain dream."
|
||||
Harriet Monroe, the editor of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, wrote a critical overview of Sterling's first four books. Her review strongly affected Sterling. On "The Testimony of the Suns," she wrote:
|
||||
|
||||
"His first long poem, "The Testimony of the Suns," does indeed make one feel the sidereal march, make one shiver before the immensity and shining glory of the universe—this in spite of shameless rhetoric which often threatens to engulf the theme beyond redemption, and in spite of the whole second part, an unhappy afterthought. Already the young poet's brilliant but too facile craftsmanship was tempted by the worst excesses of the Tennysonian tradition: he never thinks—he deems; he does not ask, but craves; he is fain for this and that; he deals in emperies and auguries and antiphons, in causal throes and lethal voids—in many other things of tinsel and fustian, the frippery of a by-gone fashion. ...And yet this is the poet, and this the poem, capable at times of lyric rapture:
|
||||
|
||||
O Deep whose very silence stuns!
|
||||
Where Light is powerless to illume,
|
||||
Lost in immensities of gloom
|
||||
That dwarf to motes the flaring suns.
|
||||
O Night where Time and Sorrow cease!
|
||||
Eternal magnitude of dark
|
||||
Wherein Aldebaran drifts a spark,
|
||||
And Sirius is hushed to peace!
|
||||
O Tides that foam on strands untrod,
|
||||
From seas in everlasting prime,
|
||||
To light where Life looks forth on Time
|
||||
And Pain, unanswered, questions God!
|
||||
What Power, with inclusive sweep
|
||||
And rigor of compelling bars,
|
||||
Shall curb the furies of the stars,
|
||||
And still the troubling of that Deep?
|
||||
|
||||
"...If I dwell upon this early poem, it is because the best and worst qualities of the poet are in it. His later work never gives us such a hint of grandeur, or falls into deeper abysses of rhetoric. ...The truth is, this sort of pomposity has died the death."
|
||||
20
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|
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|
||||
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||||
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|
||||
category: "reference"
|
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tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:34:49.600951+00:00"
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instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
== Late twentieth and early twenty-first century criticism ==
|
||||
More than three-quarters of a century after "The Testimony of the Suns" first saw daylight, looking at it today enables different perspectives. Is Sterling's poem now merely a historical artifact? Does it still say anything to readers today?
|
||||
Thomas Benediktsson's 1980 book George Sterling provides the most detailed look at Sterling's star poem to date. After careful examination, Benediktsson decided: "It should be clear by now that "The Testimony of the Suns" has little attraction for the modern reader. It is filled with archaisms and overly ‘sublime' rhetorical effects, and it lacks precise statement of its ideas. ...The second part of the poem especially falls prey to these excesses. In the effort to sustain the grandeur, Sterling allows his stanzas to become strident and nearly hysterical at times, and at other times to become deadly monotonous."
|
||||
He continued: "Behind the excesses of the rhetoric, however, is the revelation of a cosmic abyss, reinforced by the astronomical theme and leading only to despair. ...Humanity will always seek ‘to know what permanence abides/Beyond the veil the senses draw'. But there will be no revelations: men are trapped in time, and they will ‘crave unanswered.' ...The poem's final statement, then, is of ‘the impotence and eternal loneliness of human beings, involved in some vast and incomprehensible law of cyclic recurrence.' (Lionel Stevenson, "George Sterling's Place in Modern Poetry," University of California Chronicle v. 31 (October 1929), p. 418.) And thus, despite its flaws, ‘The Testimony of the Suns' is historically significant. Along with the then-forgotten poems of Stephen Crane and the still unknown poems of Robinson Jeffers, it is one of the earliest naturalist poems in America. Almost Schopenhauerian in its emphasis upon the primacy of pain, it is in its way a remarkable poem for the ‘twilight interval' in which it was written. Bierce had helped make Sterling into a significant transitional figure—a poet whose nineteenth-century rhetoric and traditional stock of images contrast sharply with [his] very modern sense of despair."
|
||||
On the other hand, literary historian S. T. Joshi stated: "Whether ‘The Testimony of the Suns' is Sterling's greatest poem is open to question; certainly, it is one of his most impressive. The vibrant depiction of cosmic conflict, although occasionally obscure in sense and diction, is a triumph of the imagination; but Sterling knew that it was not without human significance ...The fundamental message of that second part appears to be the failure of the human mind to find any ‘meaning' in the stars aside from the notion of constant struggle, warfare, and ultimate transience. Since the stars themselves will one day perish, what hope can human beings have of staving off oblivion?"
|
||||
Poet and critic Donald Sidney-Fryer described the poem as "Very much a product of the fin-de-siècle" and "a striking and grandiose appraisal of the cosmos at large. ...It remains an austere and very sober disquisition on the uncharted and star-strewn immensities of the cosmic-astronomic spaces, as well as the utter indifference of the cosmos at large to human beings and their concerns while residing and evolving on a small and inconspicuous planet circling around an insignificant sun located at the edge of the Milky Way, one galaxy among billions. This long, rather digressive, but certainly impressive poem still represents the strongest statement of cosmic pessimism or nihilism ever penned."
|
||||
More recently, Writer and critic Joshua Glenn categorized "The Testimony of the Suns" as "Radium Age poetry," described as "A (pro- or anti-) science-, mathematics-, technology-, space-, apocalypse-, dehumanization-, disenchantment-, and/or future-oriented poem published during [science fiction]'s emergent Radium Age (c. 1900–1935)." As an example, Glenn cited the poem's last twelve stanzas, which describe a search for extraterrestrial life and possible colonization of other planets.
|
||||
In 2022, Spanish literary historian Ariadna García Carreño translated Sterling's book The Testimony of the Suns and Other Poems into Spanish and discussed the star poem in her introduction.
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
32
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trouble_with_Gravity-0.md
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||||
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|
||||
title: "The Trouble with Gravity"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trouble_with_Gravity"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
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tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:34:56.537403+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Trouble with Gravity: Solving the Mystery Beneath Our Feet is a nonfiction popular science book by Richard Panek and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on July 9, 2019.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Content ==
|
||||
The book begins its first chapter by discussing ancient history and old beliefs regarding gravity and what lies above. This includes a discussion of belief in gods and how those religious views were shaped by the existence of gravity and its prevalence on living beings and all matter. The topics of Mount Olympus and stories among Aboriginal cultures in Australia are discussed in how the sky is believed to be separate from the earth and creates a separation between humans and the divine. The book points out that gravity was often seen in such context as something that only affects people on Earth and not as a universal force. Authors and those more on the philosophical end of the topic are also considered, including Dante Alighieri and Ernst Mach.
|
||||
The second chapter investigates how gravity formed from the beginning of the universe and also how the Big Bang may have created a large number of parallel universes and that gravity is not sourced in our universe, but is leaking through spacetime into ours. Then, Panek moves on to human history and how the motion of gravity was first discovered, identifying the revolution that Isaac Newton's theories on gravity had on the general public. A series of other scientists and their chronological discoveries about gravity are delved into, including John Philoponus, Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Albert Einstein, and Werner Heisenberg.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Style and tone ==
|
||||
Publishers Weekly noted that the book's "inquisitive, fine-tuned narrative is full of character" and that it departs from other science books on similar topics by having a "friendly casualness of a coffee-shop chat". The heavy topics and complex science investigated in the book have the potential to bog down the reader, Undark Magazine writer Dan Falk pointed out, but Panek's writing style manages to deliver the topic with "humility and humor".
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Critical reception ==
|
||||
Kirkus Reviews calls The Trouble With Gravity a "useful primer on a force that still inspires mystery" and that, despite philosophical shortcomings that some may have, others will "enjoy Panek’s expert description" on the complex field of study. Clara Moskowitz for Scientific American writes that this "beautiful and philosophical investigation of nature’s weakest force" will help provide insights to readers, despite not being able to answer the fundamental question regarding gravity. Library Journal reviewer Sara R. Tompson calls it "one of the best of the postgravitational-waves-discovery physics books" and that all readers would find the text accessible. Shelf Awareness calls the book's glimpse into the mysteries of gravity "thought-provoking" and that while any definitive answers may not be forthcoming, The Trouble With Gravity still gives "much to contemplate".
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Further reading ==
|
||||
Christensen B (June 2019). "Science Reviews: The Trouble with Gravity". Booklist. 115 (19/20): 10. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
|
||||
"Bookshelf: The Trouble With Gravity". Science News. 196 (2): 28. August 3, 2019. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
|
||||
30
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Colours-0.md
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||||
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|
||||
title: "Theory of Colours"
|
||||
chunk: 1/6
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Colours"
|
||||
category: "reference"
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tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:44.923919+00:00"
|
||||
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|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Theory of Colours (German: Zur Farbenlehre, lit. 'On color theory') is a book by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe about the poet's views on the nature of colours and how they are perceived by humans. It was published in German in 1810 and in English in 1840. The book contains detailed descriptions of phenomena such as coloured shadows, refraction, and chromatic aberration. The book is a successor to two short essays titled "Contributions to Optics" (German: Beiträge zur Optik).
|
||||
The work originated in Goethe's occupation with painting and primarily had its influence in the arts, with painters such as (Philipp Otto Runge, J. M. W. Turner, the Pre-Raphaelites, Hilma af Klint, and Wassily Kandinsky).
|
||||
Although Goethe's work was rejected by some physicists, a number of philosophers and physicists have concerned themselves with it, including Thomas Johann Seebeck, Arthur Schopenhauer (see: On Vision and Colors), Hermann von Helmholtz, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Werner Heisenberg, Kurt Gödel, and Mitchell Feigenbaum.
|
||||
Goethe's book provides a catalogue of how colour is perceived in a wide variety of circumstances, and considers Isaac Newton's observations to be special cases. Unlike Newton, Goethe's concern was not so much with the analytic treatment of colour, as with the qualities of how phenomena are perceived. Philosophers have come to understand the distinction between the optical spectrum, as observed by Newton, and the phenomenon of human colour perception as presented by Goethe—a subject analyzed at length by Ludwig Wittgenstein in his comments on Goethe's theory in Remarks on Colour and in Jonathan Westphal's Commentary on this work (1991).
|
||||
|
||||
== Historical background ==
|
||||
|
||||
At Goethe's time, it was generally acknowledged that, as Isaac Newton had shown in his Opticks in 1704, colourless (white) light is split up into its component colours when directed through a prism.
|
||||
|
||||
Along with the rest of the world I was convinced that all the colours are contained in the light; no one had ever told me anything different, and I had never found the least cause to doubt it, because I had no further interest in the subject.
|
||||
But how I was astonished, as I looked at a white wall through the prism, that it stayed white! That only where it came upon some darkened area, it showed some colour, then at last, around the window sill all the colours shone... It didn't take long before I knew here was something significant about colour to be brought forth, and I spoke as through an instinct out loud, that the Newtonian teachings were false.
|
||||
|
||||
This experience gave him the decisive impetus to develop his own theory of colour. and by 1793 Goethe had formulated his arguments against Newton in the essay "Über Newtons Hypothese der diversen Refrangibilität" ("On Newton's hypothesis of diverse refrangibility"). Yet, by 1794, Goethe had begun to increasingly note the importance of the physiological aspect of colours, "where it was even more difficult to distinguish between the objective and the subjective".
|
||||
As Goethe notes in the historical section, Louis Bertrand Castel had already published a criticism of Newton's spectral description of prismatic colour in 1740 in which he observed that the sequence of colours split by a prism depended on the distance from the prism—and that Newton was looking at a special case.
|
||||
"Whereas Newton observed the colour spectrum cast on a wall at a fixed distance away from the prism, Goethe observed the cast spectrum on a white card which was progressively moved away from the prism... As the card was moved away, the projected image elongated, gradually assuming an elliptical shape, and the coloured images became larger, finally merging at the centre to produce green. Moving the card farther led to the increase in the size of the image, until finally the spectrum described by Newton in the Opticks was produced... The image cast by the refracted beam was not fixed, but rather developed with increasing distance from the prism. Consequently, Goethe saw the particular distance chosen by Newton to prove the second proposition of the Opticks as capriciously imposed." (Alex Kentsis, Between Light and Eye)
|
||||
|
||||
The theory we set up against this begins with colourless light, and avails itself of outward conditions, to produce coloured phenomena; but it concedes worth and dignity to these conditions. It does not arrogate to itself developing colours from the light, but rather seeks to prove by numberless cases that colour is produced by light as well as by what stands against it.
|
||||
Recently, experiments by physicist Matthias Rang have demonstrated Goethe's discovery of complementarity as a symmetric property of spectral phenomena. also a more recent reexamination of Newton's Experimentum Crucis has:
|
||||
|
||||
shown that the commonly accepted analysis contains assumptions in the choice of the spectrum and background, which mask the inherent dynamic of the spectrum.. that apply under specific conditions that have later become standardized in Spectroscopy, leading to a consensus regarding the relation of wavelength to colours of one particular spectrum.
|
||||
37
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|
||||
title: "Theory of Colours"
|
||||
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|
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|
||||
category: "reference"
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tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:44.923919+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
== Goethe's theory ==
|
||||
Goethe's theory of the constitution of colours of the spectrum has not proved to be an unsatisfactory theory, rather it really isn't a theory at all. Nothing can be predicted with it. It is, rather a vague schematic outline of the sort we find in James's psychology. Nor is there any experimentum crucis which could decide for or against the theory.
|
||||
It is hard to present Goethe's "theory", since he refrains from setting up any actual theory; he says, "its intention is to portray rather than explain" (Scientific Studies). Instead of setting up models and explanations, Goethe collected specimens—he was responsible for the meteorological collections of Jena University. By the time of his death, he had amassed over 17,800 minerals in his personal collection—the largest in all of Europe. He took the same approach to colour—instead of narrowing and isolating things to a single 'experimentum crucis' (or critical experiment that would prove or disprove his theory), he sought to gain as much breadth for his understanding as possible by developing a wide-ranging exposition through which is revealed the essential character of colour—without having to resort to explanations and theories about perceived phenomena such as 'wavelengths' or 'particles'.
|
||||
"The crux of his color theory is its experiential source: rather than impose theoretical statements, Goethe sought to allow light and color to be displayed in an ordered series of experiments that readers could experience for themselves." (Seamon, 1998). According to Goethe, "Newton's error.. was trusting math over the sensations of his eye." (Jonah Lehrer, 2006).
|
||||
To stay true to the perception without resort to explanation was the essence of Goethe's method. What he provided was really not so much a theory as a rational description of colour. For Goethe, "the highest is to understand that all fact is really theory. The blue of the sky reveals to us the basic law of color. Search nothing beyond the phenomena, they themselves are the theory."
|
||||
|
||||
[Goethe] delivered in full measure what was promised by the title of his excellent work: Data for a Theory of Color. They are important, complete, and significant data, rich material for a future theory of color. He has not, however, undertaken to furnish the theory itself; hence, as he himself remarks and admits on page xxxix of the introduction, he has not furnished us with a real explanation of the essential nature of color, but really postulates it as a phenomenon, and merely tells us how it originates, not what it is. The physiological colors ... he represents as a phenomenon, complete and existing by itself, without even attempting to show their relation to the physical colors, his principal theme. ... it is really a systematic presentation of facts, but it stops short at this.
|
||||
Goethe outlines his method in the essay, The experiment as mediator between subject and object (1772). It underscores his experiential standpoint. "The human being himself, to the extent that he makes sound use of his senses, is the most exact physical apparatus that can exist." (Goethe, Scientific Studies)
|
||||
|
||||
I believe that what Goethe was really seeking was not a physiological but a psychological theory of colours.
|
||||
Goethe's chromatic understanding is embedded in a paradigm of polarity. In the preface to the Theory of Colours, Goethe explains how he tried to apply this principle — which is constitutive of his earliest convictions and study of nature.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Light and darkness ===
|
||||
Unlike his contemporaries, Goethe did not see darkness as an absence of light, but rather as polar to and interacting with light; colour resulted from this interaction of light and shadow. For Goethe, light is "the simplest most undivided most homogeneous being that we know. Confronting it is the darkness" (Letter to Jacobi).
|
||||
|
||||
...they maintained that shade is a part of light. It sounds absurd when I express it; but so it is: for they said that colours, which are shadow and the result of shade, are light itself.
|
||||
Based on his experiments with turbid media, Goethe characterized colour as arising from the dynamic interplay of darkness and light. Rudolf Steiner, the science editor for the Kurschner edition of Goethe's works, gave the following analogy:
|
||||
|
||||
Modern natural science sees darkness as a complete nothingness. According to this view, the light which streams into a dark space has no resistance from the darkness to overcome. Goethe pictures to himself that light and darkness relate to each other like the north and south pole of a magnet. The darkness can weaken the light in its working power. Conversely, the light can limit the energy of the darkness. In both cases color arises.
|
||||
Goethe expresses this more succinctly:
|
||||
|
||||
[..] white that becomes darkened or dimmed inclines to yellow; black, as it becomes lighter, inclines to blue.
|
||||
In other words: Yellow is a light which has been dampened by darkness; Blue is a darkness weakened by light.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Experiments with turbid media ===
|
||||
The action of turbid media was to Goethe the ultimate fact—the Urphänomen—of the world of colours.
|
||||
Goethe's studies of colour began with experiments which examined the effects of turbid media, such as air, dust, and moisture on the perception of light and dark. The poet observed that light seen through a turbid medium appears yellow, and darkness seen through an illuminated medium appears blue.
|
||||
43
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Colours-2.md
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Theory of Colours"
|
||||
chunk: 3/6
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Colours"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:44.923919+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The highest degree of light, such as that of the sun... is for the most part colourless. This light, however, seen through a medium but very slightly thickened, appears to us yellow. If the density of such a medium be increased, or if its volume become greater, we shall see the light gradually assume a yellow-red hue, which at last deepens to a ruby colour.
|
||||
If on the other hand darkness is seen through a semi-transparent medium, which is itself illumined by a light striking on it, a blue colour appears: this becomes lighter and paler as the density of the medium is increased, but on the contrary appears darker and deeper the more transparent the medium becomes: in the least degree of dimness short of absolute transparence, always supposing a perfectly colourless medium, this deep blue approaches the most beautiful violet.
|
||||
He then proceeds with numerous experiments, systematically observing the effects of rarefied mediums such as dust, air, and moisture on the perception of colour.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Boundary conditions ===
|
||||
|
||||
When viewed through a prism, the orientation of a light–dark boundary with respect to the prism's axis is significant. With white above a dark boundary, we observe the light extending a blue-violet edge into the dark area; whereas dark above a light boundary results in a red-yellow edge extending into the light area.
|
||||
Goethe was intrigued by this difference. He felt that this arising of colour at light–dark boundaries was fundamental to the creation of the spectrum (which he considered to be a compound phenomenon).
|
||||
Varying the experimental conditions by using different shades of grey shows that the intensity of coloured edges increases with boundary contrast.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Light and dark spectra ===
|
||||
|
||||
Since the colour phenomenon relies on the adjacency of light and dark, there are two ways to produce a spectrum: with a light beam in a dark room, and with a dark beam (i.e., a shadow) in a light room.
|
||||
Goethe recorded the sequence of colours projected at various distances from a prism for both cases (see Plate IV, Theory of Colours). In both cases, he found that the yellow and blue edges remain closest to the side which is light, and red and violet edges remain closest to the side which is dark. At a certain distance, these edges overlap—and we obtain Newton's spectrum. When these edges overlap in a light spectrum, green results; when they overlap in a dark spectrum, magenta results.
|
||||
With a light spectrum (i.e. a shaft of light in a surrounding darkness), we find yellow-red colours along the top edge, and blue-violet colours along the bottom edge. The spectrum with green in the middle arises only where the blue-violet edges overlap the yellow-red edges. Unfortunately an optical mixture of blue and yellow gives white, not green, and so Goethe's explanation of Newton's spectrum fails.
|
||||
Goethe also performed an exact reversal of Newton's experiment. By placing his prism in full sunlight, and placing a black cardboard circle in the middle the same size as Newton's hole — a dark spectrum (i.e., a shadow surrounded by light) is produced; we find there a violet-blue along the top edge, and red-yellow along the bottom edge—and where these edges overlap, we find (extraspectral) magenta.
|
||||
Olaf Müller presented the matter in the following way, "According to Newton, all spectral colors are contained in white sunlight, according to Goethe, the opposite can be said — that all colors of the complementary spectrum are contained in the dark."
|
||||
|
||||
== Goethe's colour wheel ==
|
||||
|
||||
When the eye sees a colour it is immediately excited and it is its nature, spontaneously and of necessity, at once to produce another, which with the original colour, comprehends the whole chromatic scale.
|
||||
Goethe anticipated Ewald Hering's opponent process theory by proposing a symmetric colour wheel. He writes, "The chromatic circle... [is] arranged in a general way according to the natural order... for the colours diametrically opposed to each other in this diagram are those which reciprocally evoke each other in the eye. Thus, yellow demands violet; orange [demands] blue; purple [demands] green; and vice versa: thus... all intermediate gradations reciprocally evoke each other; the simpler colour demanding the compound, and vice versa ( paragraph #50).
|
||||
In the same way that light and dark spectra yielded green from the mixture of blue and yellow—Goethe completed his colour wheel by recognising the importance of magenta—"For Newton, only spectral colors could count as fundamental. By contrast, Goethe's more empirical approach led him to recognize the essential role of magenta in a complete color circle, a role that it still has in all modern color systems."
|
||||
|
||||
=== Complementary colours and colours psychology ===
|
||||
|
||||
Goethe also included aesthetic qualities in his colour wheel, under the title of "allegorical, symbolic, mystic use of colour" (Allegorischer, symbolischer, mystischer Gebrauch der Farbe), establishing a kind of color psychology.
|
||||
He associated red with the "beautiful", orange with the "noble", yellow to the "good", green to the "useful", blue to the "common", and violet to the "unnecessary".
|
||||
These six qualities were assigned to four categories of human cognition, the rational (Vernunft) to the beautiful and the noble (red and orange), the intellectual (Verstand) to the good and the useful (yellow and green), the sensual (Sinnlichkeit) to the useful and the common (green and blue) and, closing the circle, imagination (Phantasie) to both the unnecessary and the beautiful (purple and red).
|
||||
|
||||
==== Notes on translation ====
|
||||
Magenta appeared as a colour term only in the mid-nineteenth century, after Goethe. Hence, references to Goethe's recognition of magenta are fraught with interpretation. If one observes the colours coming out of a prism—an English person may be more inclined to describe as magenta what in German is called Purpur—so one may not lose the intention of the author.
|
||||
However, literal translation is more difficult. Goethe's work uses two composite words for mixed (intermediate) hues along with corresponding usual colour terms such as "orange" and "violet".
|
||||
41
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Colours-3.md
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|
||||
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|
||||
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|
||||
chunk: 4/6
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Colours"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:44.923919+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
It is not clear how Goethe's Rot, Purpur (explicitly named as the complementary to green), and Schön (one of the six colour sectors) are related between themselves and to the red tip of the visible spectrum. The text about interference from the "physical" chapter does not consider Rot and Purpur synonymous. Also, Purpur is certainly distinct from Blaurot, because Purpur is named as a colour which lies somewhere between Blaurot and Gelbrot (, paragraph 476), although possibly not adjacent to the latter. This article uses the English translations from the above table.
|
||||
|
||||
== Newton and Goethe ==
|
||||
Ernst Lehrs writes, "In point of fact, the essential difference between Goethe's theory of colour and the theory which has prevailed in science (despite all modifications) since Newton's day, lies in this: While the theory of Newton and his successors was based on excluding the colour-seeing faculty of the eye, Goethe founded his theory on the eye's experience of colour."
|
||||
"The renouncing of life and immediacy, which was the premise for the progress of natural science since Newton, formed the real basis for the bitter struggle which Goethe waged against the physical optics of Newton. It would be superficial to dismiss this struggle as unimportant: there is much significance in one of the most outstanding men directing all his efforts to fighting against the development of Newtonian optics." (Werner Heisenberg, during a speech celebrating Goethe's birthday)
|
||||
Due to their different approaches to a common subject, many misunderstandings have arisen between Newton's mathematical understanding of optics, and Goethe's experiential approach.
|
||||
Because Newton understands white light to be composed of individual colours, and Goethe sees colour arising from the interaction of light and dark, they come to different conclusions on the question: is the optical spectrum a primary or a compound phenomenon?
|
||||
For Newton, the prism is immaterial to the existence of colour, as all the colours already exist in white light, and the prism merely fans them out according to their refrangibility. Goethe sought to show that, as a turbid medium, the prism was an integral factor in the arising of colour.
|
||||
Whereas Newton narrowed the beam of light in order to isolate the phenomenon, Goethe observed that with a wider aperture, there was no spectrum. He saw only reddish-yellow edges and blue-cyan edges with white between them, and the spectrum arose only where these edges came close enough to overlap. For him, the spectrum could be explained by the simpler phenomenon of colour arising from the interaction of light and dark edges.
|
||||
Newton explains the appearance of white with colored edges by saying that due to the differing overall amount of refraction, the rays mix together to create a full white towards the centre, whereas the edges do not benefit from this full mixture and appear with greater red or blue components. For Newton's account of his experiments, see his Opticks (1704).
|
||||
|
||||
=== Table of differences ===
|
||||
|
||||
Goethe's reification of darkness is rejected by modern physics. Both Newton and Huygens defined darkness as an absence of light. Young and Fresnel showed that Huygens' wave theory (in his Treatise on Light) could explain that colour is the visible manifestation of light's wavelength. Physicists today attribute both a corpuscular and undulatory character to light—comprising the wave–particle duality.
|
||||
|
||||
== History and influence ==
|
||||
The first edition of the Farbenlehre was printed at the Cotta'schen Verlagsbuchhandlung on May 16, 1810, with 250 copies on grey paper and 500 copies on white paper. It contained three sections: i) a didactic section in which Goethe presents his own observations, ii) a polemic section in which he makes his case against Newton, and iii) a historical section.
|
||||
From its publication, the book was controversial for its stance against Newton. So much so, that when Charles Eastlake translated the text into English in 1840, he omitted the content of Goethe's polemic against Newton.
|
||||
|
||||
Significantly (and regrettably), only the 'Didactic' colour observations appear in Eastlake's translation. In his preface, Eastlake explains that he deleted the historical and entoptic parts of the book because they 'lacked scientific interest', and censored Goethe's polemic because the 'violence of his objections' against Newton would prevent readers from fairly judging Goethe's color observations.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Influence on the arts ===
|
||||
|
||||
Goethe was initially induced to occupy himself with the study of colour by the questions of hue in painting. "During his first journey to Italy (1786–88), he noticed that artists were able to enunciate rules for virtually all the elements of painting and drawing except color and coloring. In the years 1786–88, Goethe began investigating whether one could ascertain rules to govern the artistic use of color."
|
||||
This aim came to some fulfillment when several pictorial artists, above all Philipp Otto Runge, took an interest in his colour studies. After being translated into English by Charles Eastlake in 1840, the theory became widely adopted by the art world—especially among the Pre-Raphaelites. J. M. W. Turner studied it comprehensively and referenced it in the titles of several paintings. Wassily Kandinsky considered it "one of the most important works."
|
||||
|
||||
=== Influence on Latin American flags ===
|
||||
|
||||
During a party in Weimar in the winter of 1785, Goethe had a late-night conversation with the South American revolutionary Francisco de Miranda. In a letter written to Count Semyon Romanovich Vorontsov (1792), Miranda recounted how Goethe, fascinated with his exploits throughout the Americas and Europe, told him, "Your destiny is to create in your land a place where primary colours are not distorted." He proceeded to clarify what he meant:
|
||||
|
||||
First he explained to me the way the iris transforms the light into the three primary colours... then he said, "Why yellow is the most warm, noble and closest to the bright light; why Blue is that mix of excitement and serenity, so far that it evokes the shadows; and why Red is the exaltation of Yellow and Blue, the synthesis, the vanishing of the bright light into the shadows".
|
||||
30
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|
||||
title: "Theory of Colours"
|
||||
chunk: 5/6
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Colours"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:44.923919+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
=== Influence on philosophers ===
|
||||
In the nineteenth century Goethe's Theory was taken up by Schopenhauer in On Vision and Colors, who developed it into a kind of arithmetical physiology of the action of the retina, much in keeping with his own representative idealism ["The world is my representation or idea"].
|
||||
In the twentieth century the theory was transmitted to philosophy via Ludwig Wittgenstein, who devoted a series of remarks to the subject at the end of his life. These remarks are collected as Remarks on Colour, (Wittgenstein, 1977).
|
||||
|
||||
Someone who agrees with Goethe finds that Goethe correctly recognized the nature of colour. And here ‘nature’ does not mean a sum of experiences with respect to colours, but it is to be found in the concept of colour.
|
||||
Wittgenstein was interested in the fact that some propositions about colour are apparently neither empirical nor exactly a priori, but something in between: phenomenology, according to Goethe. However, Wittgenstein took the line that 'There is no such thing as phenomenology, though there are phenomenological problems.' He was content to regard Goethe's observations as a kind of logic or geometry. Wittgenstein took his examples from the Runge letter included in the "Farbenlehre", e.g. "White is the lightest colour", "There cannot be a transparent white", "There cannot be a reddish green", and so on. The logical status of these propositions in Wittgenstein's investigation, including their relation to physics, has been discussed in Jonathan Westphal's Colour: a Philosophical Introduction (Westphal, 1991).
|
||||
|
||||
=== Reception by scientists ===
|
||||
During Goethe's lifetime (that is, between 1810 and 1832) countless scientists and mathematicians commented on Goethe's Newton criticism in color theory, namely in reviews, books, book chapters, footnotes, and open letters. Among these — just under half spoke against Goethe, especially Thomas Young, Étienne-Louis Malus, Pierre Prévost and Gustav Fechner. One third of the statements from the natural sciences were in favour of Goethe, in particular Thomas Johann Seebeck, Johann Schweigger and Johann Friedrich Christian Werneburg, and one-fifth expressed ambivalence or a draw.
|
||||
As early as 1853, in Hermann von Helmholtz's lecture on Goethe's scientific works—he says of Goethe's work that he depicts the perceived phenomena—"circumstantially, rigorously true to nature, and vividly puts them in an order that is pleasant to survey, and proves himself here, as everywhere in the realm of the factual, to be the great master of exposition" (Helmholtz 1853). Helmholtz ultimately rejects Goethe's theory as the work of a poet, but expresses his perplexity at how they can be in such agreement about the facts of the matter, but in violent contradiction about their meaning—'And I for one do not know how anyone, regardless of what his views about colours are, can deny that the theory in itself is fully consequent, that its assumptions, once granted, explain the facts treated completely and indeed simply'. (Helmholtz 1853)
|
||||
Although the accuracy of Goethe's observations does not admit a great deal of criticism, his aesthetic approach did not lend itself to the demands of analytic and mathematical analysis used ubiquitously in modern science.
|
||||
|
||||
Goethe's colour theory has in many ways borne fruit in art, physiology and aesthetics. But victory, and hence influence on the research of the following century, has been Newton's.
|
||||
"One hole Goethe did find in Newton's armour, through which he incessantly worried the Englishman with his lance. Newton had committed himself to the doctrine that refraction without colour was impossible. He therefore thought that the object-glasses of telescopes must for ever remain imperfect, achromatism and refraction being incompatible. This inference was proved by Dollond to be wrong... Here, as elsewhere, Goethe proves himself master of the experimental conditions. It is the power of interpretation that he lacks."
|
||||
Much controversy stems from two different ways of investigating light and colour. Goethe was not interested in Newton's analytic treatment of colour—but he presented an excellent rational description of the phenomenon of human colour perception. It is as such a collection of colour observations that we must view this book.
|
||||
|
||||
Most of Goethe's explanations of color have been thoroughly demolished, but no criticism has been leveled at his reports of the facts to be observed; nor should any be. This book can lead the reader through a demonstration course not only in subjectively produced colors (after images, light and dark adaptation, irradiation, colored shadows, and pressure phosphenes), but also in physical phenomena detectable qualitatively by observation of color (absorption, scattering, refraction, diffraction, polarization, and interference). A reader who attempts to follow the logic of Goethe's explanations and who attempts to compare them with the currently accepted views might, even with the advantage of 1970 sophistication, become convinced that Goethe's theory, or at least a part of it, has been dismissed too quickly.
|
||||
Mitchell Feigenbaum came to believe that "Goethe had been right about colour!"
|
||||
|
||||
As Feigenbaum understood them, Goethe's ideas had true science in them. They were hard and empirical. Over and over again, Goethe emphasized the repeatability of his experiments. It was the perception of colour, to Goethe, that was universal and objective. What scientific evidence was there for a definable real-world quality of redness independent of our perception?
|
||||
73
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|
||||
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|
||||
chunk: 6/6
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Colours"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:44.923919+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
=== Current status ===
|
||||
"Newton believed that with the help of his prism experiments, he could prove that sunlight was composed of variously coloured rays of light. Goethe showed that this step from observation to theory is more problematic than Newton wanted to admit. By insisting that the step to theory is not forced upon us by the phenomena, Goethe revealed our own free, creative contribution to theory construction. And Goethe's insight is surprisingly significant, because he correctly claimed that all of the results of Newton's prism experiments fit a theoretical alternative equally well.. a century before Duhem and Quine's famous arguments for Underdetermination."
|
||||
"Goethe's critique of Newton was not an attack on reason or science, though it has often been portrayed that way.. The critique maintained that Newton had mistaken mathematical imagining as the pure evidence of the senses.. Goethe tried to define the scientific function of imagination: to interrelate phenomena once they have been meticulously produced, described, and organized... Newton had introduced dogma.. into color science by claiming that color could be reduced to a function of rays." (Dennis L. Sepper, 2009)
|
||||
|
||||
Goethe started out by accepting Newton's physical theory. He soon abandoned it... finding modification to be more in keeping with his own insights. One beneficial consequence of this was that he developed an awareness of the importance of the physiological aspect of colour perception, and was therefore able to demonstrate that Newton's theory of light and colours is too simplistic; that there is more to colour than variable refrangibility.
|
||||
"Although he soon rejected Newton's differential refrangibility, Goethe always affirmed Newtonian mechanics. It was not an apriori poetic prejudice against mathematical analysis but rather performing the experiments that led him to reject the theory... Goethe soon concluded that in order to explain color one needs to know not just about light but also about eye function and relative differences in light across the visual field." (Sepper, 2009)
|
||||
As a catalogue of observations, Goethe's experiments probe the complexities of human colour perception. Whereas Newton sought to develop a mathematical model for the behaviour of light, Goethe focused on exploring how colour is perceived in a wide array of conditions. Developments in understanding how the brain interprets colours, such as colour constancy and Edwin H. Land's retinex theory bear striking similarities to Goethe's theory.
|
||||
Goethe discovered that producing images by passing inverse optical contrasts through a prism always results in isomorphic, complementary spectra. Against the background of the representation he had found in Newton’s Opticks, this was an unexpected discovery. Experimental developments by physicist Matthias Rang have demonstrated Goethe's discovery of complementarity as a symmetric property of spectral phenomena. A re-examination of Newton's experimentum crucis by scholar Gopi Krishna Vijaya in 2020 reports:
|
||||
|
||||
The polarity of light and dark in the treatment of the Newtonian spectrum and the inverse spectrum is studied.. in relation to Goethe’s views.. In order to clarify the reality of the 'Darkness Rays'. [Newton's] experimentum crucis is re-evaluated. It is shown that the commonly accepted analysis contains assumptions in the choice of the spectrum and background, which mask the inherent dynamic of the spectrum. The relation between colour and wavelength is re-examined with respect to the immutability and specific refrangibility of colour. It is then shown that both these properties are approximations that apply under the specific conditions that have later become standardized in Spectroscopy, leading to a consensus regarding the relation of wavelength to colours of one particular spectrum.
|
||||
A modern treatment of the book is given by Dennis L. Sepper in the book, Goethe contra Newton: Polemics and the Project for a New Science of Color (Cambridge University Press, 2003).
|
||||
|
||||
== Quotations ==
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
Checker shadow illusion (Same color illusion)
|
||||
Color theory
|
||||
Entoptic phenomenon
|
||||
Opponent process
|
||||
Romanticism in science
|
||||
Theory of painting
|
||||
|
||||
== Notes and references ==
|
||||
|
||||
== Bibliography ==
|
||||
Goethe, Theory of Colours, trans. Charles Lock Eastlake, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1982. ISBN 0-262-57021-1
|
||||
Bockemuhl, M., Turner. Koln: Taschen, 1991. ISBN 3-8228-6325-4.
|
||||
Duck, Michael J. (September 1988). "Newton and Goethe on colour: Physical and physiological considerations". Annals of Science. 45 (5): 507–519. doi:10.1080/00033798800200361.
|
||||
Gleick, James, Chaos, London: William Heinemann, 1988. pp. 165–7
|
||||
Lehrer, Jonah, Goethe and Color, Science Blogs: The Frontal Cortex, 7 Dec. 2006.
|
||||
Lehrs, Ernst, Man or Matter, Chapter XIV [1]
|
||||
Matthaei, Rupprecht, Goethe's color theory. By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Arranged and edited by Rupprecht Matthaei. American ed. translated and edited by Herb Aach. Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1971.
|
||||
Proskauer, The Rediscovery of Color, Dornach: Steiner Books, 1986.
|
||||
Rowe, M. W. (July 1991). "Goethe and Wittgenstein". Philosophy. 66 (257): 283–303. doi:10.1017/S0031819100064901. JSTOR 3751682.
|
||||
Ribe, Neil; Steinle, Friedrich (2002). "Exploratory Experimentation: Goethe, Land, and Color Theory". Physics Today. 55 (7): 43. Bibcode:2002PhT....55g..43R. doi:10.1063/1.1506750.
|
||||
Ribe, Neil M (1985). "Goethe's critique of Newton: A reconsideration". Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A. 16 (4): 315–335. Bibcode:1985SHPSA..16..315R. doi:10.1016/0039-3681(85)90015-9.
|
||||
Schopenhauer, On Vision and Colors, Providence: Berg, 1994. ISBN 0-85496-988-8
|
||||
Sepper, Dennis L., Goethe contra Newton: Polemics and the Project for a New Science of Color, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. ISBN 0-521-53132-2
|
||||
Sepper, Dennis L. (September 2009). "Goethe, Newton, and the Imagination of Modern Science". Revue internationale de philosophie. 249 (3): 261–277. doi:10.3917/rip.249.0261.
|
||||
Steiner, Rudolf, First Scientific Lecture-Course, Third Lecture, Stuttgart, 25 December 1919. GA320.
|
||||
Steiner, Rudolf, "Goethe's World View", Chapter III The Phenomena of the World of Colors, 1897.
|
||||
Barsan, Victor; Merticariu, Andrei (2016). "Goethe's theory of colors between the ancient philosophy, middle ages occultism and modern science" (PDF). Cogent Arts & Humanities. 3. doi:10.1080/23311983.2016.1145569.
|
||||
Westphal, Jonathan, "Colour: a Philosophical Introduction", Aristotelian Society Series, Vol. 7, Oxford, Blackwell, 1991 (2nd. ed.).
|
||||
Wittgenstein, Remarks on Colour, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978. ISBN 0-520-03727-8
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
|
||||
Theory of Colours (in German) online pdf
|
||||
Theory of Colours (in English)
|
||||
Theory of Colours public domain audiobook at LibriVox
|
||||
Theory of Colours (audiobook; released June 2014) (in English)
|
||||
Light, Darkness and Colour, a film by Henrik Boëtius (1998)
|
||||
Connections That Have a Quality of Necessity: Goethe's Way Of Science As a Phenomenology of Nature
|
||||
Colour Mixing and Goethe's Triangle (Java Applet)
|
||||
Lolcoloring (in English) Texts on Wikisource:
|
||||
John Tyndall, "Goethe's Farbenlehre-(Theory of Colors) I", in Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 17, June 1880.
|
||||
John Tyndall, "Goethe's Farbenlehre-(Theory of Colors) II", in Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 17, July 1880.
|
||||
BBC Radio 4 Podcast, In Our Time Science – Goethe and the Science of the Enlightenment
|
||||
Critical review of Goethe's Theory of Colours
|
||||
David Briggs on primary colours, including a fundamental critique concerning Goethe's physical observations
|
||||
Goethe's Polemics against Newton: A Morphological Approach to History of Science viz the Dartington Trust
|
||||
A list of links relating to Goethe's investigation of colour
|
||||
Essay discussing color psychology and Goethe's theory
|
||||
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Through Distant Worlds and Times"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Through_Distant_Worlds_and_Times"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:34:50.723588+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Through Distant Worlds and Times or Through Distant Worlds and Times: Letters from a Wayfarer in the Universe is a romantic scientific story written by Milutin Milanković, the Serbian mathematician, astronomer, geophysicist and climatologist, in the form of letters to an anonymous young woman.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Overview ==
|
||||
Between 1925 and 1928, Milanković tried his hand at popular writing with a series of magazine articles on astronomy, astronomers, and climatology. Each month for three years he wrote a letter to an imaginary friend about visiting something in the universe or journeying to the past to visit an astronomer. The letters contained a large amount of autobiographical detail. They were published in a Serbian magazine and later collected in a book, Through Distant Worlds and Times, published in Serbian and later in German. It was the best selling book of his career.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Synopsis ==
|
||||
The book consists of 37 letters to the unnamed woman. They serve as vehicles for discussion of the history of astronomy, climatology and science. In writing the letters, Milanković remembers his early life, from birth in Dalj, through his education, to successes and failures at a professional level. The work takes inspiration from his travels through Germany, Hungary, Istanbul and Europe, and his return to his birthplace, which seems to him desolate and dilapidated in contrast.
|
||||
The writer uses a personal approach to science, traveling with a friend through time and space. In the appropriate attire, they roam the ancient world. Unseen by the natives, they spy Babylonian priests, Aristotle, Eratosthenes and other great scholars and figures of antiquity and modern history.
|
||||
The letters describe experiments, development of scientific instruments, ancient architecture and new cities, and an epic voyage on the seas. The history of scientific ideas is explored, including basic knowledge about the Sun, planets and their orbits. In the central part of the book, the writer discusses climate change and cyclical ice ages throughout the history and future of the Earth.
|
||||
In the final letters, Milanković describes the formation of the Earth and the stages through which it passed until it became the cradle of life, then presents its future, following the dying stages of the Sun and planets. Finally, the book deals with travel to the Moon, Mars and Venus, and a pilgrimage to the universe.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
0
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_the_Stars
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0
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_the_Stars
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17
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch_the_Invisible_Sky-0.md
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Touch the Invisible Sky"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch_the_Invisible_Sky"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:34:53.081335+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Touch the Invisible Sky is a 60-page tactile astronomy book written by astronomy educator Noreen Grice, and astronomers Simon Steel and Doris Daou, and was published in 2007 by Ozone publishing. The book contains colour images alongside Braille and large print descriptions of celestial objects, and colour photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and Spitzer Space Telescope, amongst others. The pages are overlaid with braille & tactile images embossed in an epoxy layer, in a process known as TechnoBraille, allowing visually impaired readers to feel the images. The images featured include nebulae, stars, galaxies and some of the telescopes used to photograph the celestial objects. The images span a range of wavelengths on the electromagnetic spectrum, with a variety of textures and shapes used to convey the characteristics of the objects. The objects featured include the Sun, the star Eta Carinae, The Crab Nebula, and Kepler's Supernova.
|
||||
It was partly funded by NASA, who have also funded two other books by Grice, Touch the Universe and Touch the Sun, and by an education grant from the Chandra mission.
|
||||
|
||||
We wanted to show that the beauty and complexity of the universe goes far beyond what we can see with our eyes!
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
36
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traces_of_Catastrophe-0.md
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36
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traces_of_Catastrophe-0.md
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|
||||
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|
||||
title: "Traces of Catastrophe"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traces_of_Catastrophe"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:34:54.225437+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Traces of Catastrophe: A Handbook of Shock-Metamorphic Effects in Terrestrial Meteorite Impact Structures is a book written by Bevan M. French of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a comprehensive technical reference on the science of impact craters. It was published in 1998 by the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), which is part of the Universities Space Research Association (USRA). It was originally available in hard copy from LPI, but is now only available as a portable document format (PDF) e-book free download.
|
||||
The book has become very influential in the field of impact crater research, appearing as a common reference for papers and web sites on the topic. The Earth Impact Database lists it among the suggested reading on its introductory page about impact craters. The Impact Field Studies Group Impact Database says it is required reading before submitting an observation of a proposed impact site. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) lists it among general references relevant to Planetary Science across the Solar System. NASA GSFC also has a Remote Sensing Tutorial site which calls Traces of Catastrophe an "exceptional summary of impact cratering."
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Overview ==
|
||||
The book is divided into eight chapters.
|
||||
Chapter 1 introduces impact craters, now recognized on Earth due to the study of other planetary bodies, most significantly the Moon. On Earth, impact craters differ from other processes in geology in being rare, from a release of extremely large amounts of energy, and happening in an instant. It contrasts with other geological forces that mostly take very long periods of time.
|
||||
Chapter 2 covers the astronomical aspect with asteroids and comets. Historical impacts are discussed, including the Tunguska event of 1908. There is a table comparing effects from tiny to enormous meteor impacts.
|
||||
Chapter 3 is about the process of formation of a crater during an impact event. The propagation of the shock wave leads to progressive stages of contact/compression, excavation and modification. It differentiates simple and complex craters, and multi-ring basins. Then it covers the erosion processes that continue after the crater has been made.
|
||||
Chapter 4 is about shock metamorphism, the unique changes made to rocks by the extreme but brief shock forces of an impact. The effects include shatter cones, planar deformation features (PDFs), selective melting and many others. The amount of shock metamorphism in the rocks progresses in stages with the amount of pressure that they were exposed to, ranging from fracturing and brecciation to vaporization of the rocks and later condensation into glass.
|
||||
Chapter 5 surveys various impactites, meaning shock-metamorphosed rocks, and where they are found in an impact structure based on the pressures in various parts of the cratering process. The topics include crater-fill breccias, ejecta blanket, pseudotachylite and impact melt breccias.
|
||||
Chapter 6 covers impact melts, their volume relative to crater size, melt rocks in the crater, impact melt breccias, dikes & sills, and tektites.
|
||||
Chapter 7 is about finding new impact structures. It includes search methods and verification using unique features of craters covered earlier.
|
||||
Chapter 8 looks to the future, considers current problems and subjects for further study.
|
||||
An appendix "Criteria for recognizing terrestrial impact structures" provides a checklist for use in verification of potential impact sites.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Notes ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
Traces of Catastrophe e-book download at Lunar and Planetary Institute
|
||||
Traces of Catastrophe entry at NASA Technical Reports Server
|
||||
34
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traité_Élémentaire_de_Chimie-0.md
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data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traité_Élémentaire_de_Chimie-0.md
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Traité Élémentaire de Chimie"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traité_Élémentaire_de_Chimie"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:33.899052+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Traité élémentaire de chimie is a textbook written by Antoine Lavoisier published in 1789 and translated into English by Robert Kerr in 1790 under the title Elements of Chemistry in a New Systematic Order containing All the Modern Discoveries. It is considered to be the first modern chemical textbook.
|
||||
The book defines an element as a single substance that can't be broken down by chemical analysis and from which all chemical compounds are formed, publishing his discovery that fermentation produces carbon dioxide (carbonic gas) and spirit of wine, saying that it is "more appropriately called by the Arabic word alcohol since it is formed from cider or fermented sugar as well as wine", and publishing the first chemical equation "grape must = carbonic acid + alcohol", calling this reaction "one of the most extraordinary in chemistry", noting "In these experiments, we have to assume that there is a true balance or equation between the elements of the compounds with which we start and those obtained at the end of the chemical reaction."
|
||||
The book contains 33 elements, only 23 of which are elements in the modern sense. The elements given by Lavoisier are: light, caloric, oxygen, azote (nitrogen), hydrogen, sulphur, phosphorous (phosphorus), charcoal, muriatic radical (chloride), fluoric radical (fluoride), boracic radical, antimony, arsenic, bismuth, cobalt, copper, gold, iron, lead, manganese, mercury, molybdena (molybdenite), nickel, platina (platinum), silver, tin, tungstein (tungsten), zinc, lime, magnesia (magnesium), barytes (baryte), argill (clay or earth of alum), and silex.
|
||||
|
||||
The law of conservation of mass, which in France is taught as Lavoisier's Law, is paraphrased in the phrase "Rien ne se perd, rien ne se crée, tout se transforme." ("Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed.")
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
The Sceptical Chymist by Robert Boyle
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Notes ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
=== Works cited ===
|
||||
Lavoisier, Antoine (1790), Elements of Chemistry in New Systematic Order, Containing All Modern Discoveries, Illustrated with 13 Copperplates, translated from the French by Robert Kerr (1 ed.), Edinburgh: William Creech, retrieved 2012-04-15
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
|
||||
English translation on Project Gutenberg
|
||||
Internet Archive version of a 1965 reprint
|
||||
Traité élémentaire de chimie from Wikimedia Commons
|
||||
Title page, woodcuts, and copperplate engravings by Madame Lavoisier from a 1789 first edition of Traité élémentaire de chimie (all images freely available for download in a variety of formats from Science History Institute Digital Collections at digital.sciencehistory.org.
|
||||
20
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrocinium_Chymicum-0.md
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data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrocinium_Chymicum-0.md
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Tyrocinium Chymicum"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrocinium_Chymicum"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:35.072682+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Tyrocinium Chymicum was a published set of chemistry lecture notes started by Jean Beguin in 1610 in Paris, France. It has been cited as the first chemistry textbook (as opposed to that for alchemy). Many of the preparations were pharmaceutical in nature.
|
||||
The work was initially written to teach chemistry to apothecaries and medical practictioners, written by Beguin to avoid having to dictate text to his students during lectures. It was later said by Martin Lister to be "the most influential and popular chymical textbook published in the first half of the seventeenth century".
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
Antonio Clericuzio, Chemical Textbooks in the Seventeenth Century
|
||||
Tyrocinium Chymicum (1643)
|
||||
@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ullmann's_Encyclopedia_of_Industrial_Chemistry"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:29:39.298987+00:00"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:36.292169+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
25
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Tungsten-0.md
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25
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Tungsten-0.md
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Uncle Tungsten"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Tungsten"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:37.523523+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood is a memoir by Oliver Sacks about his childhood published in 2001. The book is named after Sacks's Uncle Dave, whom Oliver nicknamed Uncle Tungsten because he was secretary of a business named Tungstalite, which made incandescent lightbulbs with a tungsten filament. Uncle Tungsten was fascinated with tungsten and believed it was the metal of the future. According to family members, Oliver used the single nickname, Uncle Tungsten, to refer to a combination of Dave with several other individuals in the same family.
|
||||
Sacks' middle name is 'Wolf', and in most European (especially Germanic, Spanish and Slavic) languages, tungsten is named "Wolfram", which is the origin of the chemical symbol W.
|
||||
The book combines autobiographical elements with a primer in the history and science of chemistry. However, it is not all about his youthful passion for chemistry, but also is eclectic, relating his memories of the catastrophic fire at the Crystal Palace, his terrible experiences of sadism at school, his interest in amateur chemistry, and a passing obsession with coloring his own black-and-white photographs in his home laboratory.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
Upon release, Uncle Tungsten was generally well-received among the British press.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
Uncle Tungsten on Oliver Sacks' official site
|
||||
C-SPAN Book Discussion on Uncle Tungsten with Sacks, November 29, 2001
|
||||
0
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe
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0
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe
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31
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utrecht_Atlas-0.md
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31
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utrecht_Atlas-0.md
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Utrecht Atlas"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utrecht_Atlas"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:00.034060+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Utrecht Atlas of the solar spectrum is a detailed inventory in graphical form of spectral lines observed in sunlight at the Sonnenborgh Observatory. The visible spectrum is about 390 to 700 nm and the atlas covers from 361.2 to 877.1 nm (plus an appendix) so that the atlas has some coverage of the infrared and ultraviolet spectrum of sunlight. The atlas, compiled by Minnaert and his students Mulders and Houtgast, was published in 1940 shortly before the WWII invasion of the Netherlands.
|
||||
A reviewer's description of the atlas states:
|
||||
|
||||
The Atlas contains intensity curves covering the complete solar spectrum from λ 3612 to λ 8771 based on photographs taken at the Mount Wilson Observatory together with an appendix covering the region λ 3332 to λ 3637 as derived from plates secured at Utrecht. The scale in wave length is about 20 millimeters per angstrom so that the spectrum is represented on a map about 360 feet long. The curves are printed in black on millimeter paper with blue lines. The intensity scale is such that a vertical range of 100 millimeters corresponds to the difference between zero intensity and the continuous background.
|
||||
Astronomer John Hearnshaw wrote:
|
||||
|
||||
The atlas had a huge influence on solar and stellar high resolution spectroscopy after World War II.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== History ==
|
||||
In the early nineteenth century, Joseph von Fraunhofer made the first systematic inventory of spectral lines in sunlight. Full understanding of the significance of Fraunhofer lines required a huge amount of pioneering research in astrophysics and quantum theory. Cecilia Payne (1925) demonstrated that variations in stellar line strengths can be explained by the Saha ionization equation. Payne's work lead to a major study of the chemical abundances in the solar atmosphere undertaken by H. N. Russell, Walter S. Adams, and Charlotte Moore. Around 1930, the procedures developed by Russell, Adams, and Moore were adapted by Minnaert and Mulders for determining chemical abundances in stellar photospheres. Houtgast invented a modification of Moll's microphotometer that Minnaert, Mulders, and Houtgast employed to make direct registrations of the solar line intensities.
|
||||
According to Minnaert at a seminar on the occasion of his 70th birthday:
|
||||
|
||||
In 1936 Mulders went to the Mt Wilson Observatory and took the plates for our Photometric Atlas, while Houtgast developed the modified, home-made instrument, which could be added to the microphotometer and gave direct intensity readings. All microphotometer curves were obtained by direct photographic recording; we worked mostly in the night, because then the microphotometer was free. You were alone in the building, and in the silence of the darkroom, in the dull red light, you were developing your record. There it emerged, slowly emerged, out of nothingness, and as if by magic there appeared on the paper the profile of the cyanogen band, or of the atmospheric oxygen lines, never earlier observed in their true quantitative shape.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
Sterken, C.; de Groot, M., eds. (2012). "Instrumental Effects in Stellar Spectroscopy by Dainis Dravins". In: The Impact of Long-Term Monitoring on Variable Star Research: Astrophysics, Instrumentation, Data Handling, Archiving. pp. 269–289. ISBN 9789401111645. (Example of Utrecht Atlas data, p. 271)
|
||||
40
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanga_Jyotisha-0.md
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40
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanga_Jyotisha-0.md
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Vedanga Jyotisha"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanga_Jyotisha"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:02.389334+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Vedanga Jyotisha (IAST: Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa), or Jyotishavedanga (Jyotiṣavedāṅga), is one of earliest known Indian texts on astrology (Jyotisha). The extant text is dated to the final centuries BCE, but it may be based on a tradition reaching back to about 700-600 BCE.
|
||||
The text is foundational to Jyotisha, one of the six Vedanga disciplines. Its author is traditionally named as Lagadha.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Textual history ==
|
||||
The dating of the Vedanga Jyotisha is relevant for the dating of the Vedic texts. The Vedanga Jyotisha describes the winter solstice for the period of ca. 1400 BCE. This description has been used to date the Vedanga Jyotisha. According to Michael Witzel, the question is "whether the description as given in the Jyotisha is also the date of the text in which it is transmitted. It is written in two recensions – Rigveda recensions and Yajurveda recensions. Rigveda recensions and Yajurveda recensions have same verses except for eight additional verses in the Yajurveda's one". T. K. S. Sastry and R. Kochhar suppose that the Vedanga Jyotisha was written in the period that it describes, and therefore propose an early date, between 1370 and 1150 BCE. David Pingree dates the described solstice as about 1180 BCE, but notes that the relevance of this computation to the date of the Vedanga Jyotisha is not evident. The estimation of 1400-1200 BCE has been followed by others, with Subbarayappa adding that the extant form can possibly be from 700-600 BCE.
|
||||
Other authors propose a later composition. Santanu Chakraverti writes that it has been composed after 700 BCE, while Michael Witzel dates it to the last centuries BCE, based on the style of composing. According to Chakraverti, its description of the winter solstice is correct for ca. 1400 BCE, but not for the time of its composition after 700 BCE. This may be due to the incorporation of late Harappan astronomical knowledge into the Vedic fold, an idea also proposed by Subbarayappa. Michael Witzel notes:
|
||||
|
||||
[O]nly if one is convinced that Lagadha intended the solstice to be exactly at alpha Delphini of Dhanishta, one can date his observations back to the late second millennium. Since that cannot be shown beyond doubt, since the composition of the text is in Late Epic language, and since its contents have clear resemblances to Babylonian works, the text must belong to a late period, to the last centuries BCE.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Calendar ==
|
||||
The calendar described by the Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa is based on the average motion of the Sun and Moon, but does not describe their precise movements. The calendar has a 5 year cyclical period called a yuga. The yuga begins on the 1st day of the month of Māgha when the Sun and Moon return together (a new moon day) at the Dhaniṣṭhā star (Beta Delphini) on the day of uttarāyaṇa (winter solstice). The starting conditions of a yuga were accurate when the calendar was first implemented, however in the following centuries corrections would have to be made in order for each yuga to maintain them. A yuga consists of 62 months of which 2 are intercalary (adhika māsa), with the intercalary months being added after every 30 months in the 3rd and 5th years in the form of an extra month before Śrāvaṇa and an extra month at the end of a year, respectively. A tithi is defined as being 1/30 of a lunar month, and each day was reckoned to have a tithi. However since there are more tithis in a yuga than civil days, a tithi is omitted every 61 days (kṣaya tithi). Also since the period of a tithi is slightly less than a civil day, and extra tithi would be added at the end of a yuga. Each day was also considered to belong at a nakṣatra (asterism) which the Moon occupied. However, the period of a nakṣatra is shorter than a civil day, thus an extra nakṣatra is added every 3,279 days. The months of the year are called Māgha, Phālguna, Caitra, Vaiśākha, Jyaiṣṭha, Āṣāḍha, (Śrāvaṇa Adhika, if needed), Śrāvaṇa, Bhādrapadā, Āśvina, Kārtika, Mārgaśīrṣa, Pauṣa, (Pauṣa or Māgha Adhika, if needed). The calendar follows the amānta system in which months end with amāvasyā (new moon) and begin on śukla pratipada.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Editions ==
|
||||
Yajus recension, Rk variants and commentary of Somākara Śeṣanāga, edited: Albrecht Weber, Über den Vedakalender Namens Jyotisham, Berlin 1862
|
||||
Yajus recension, non-Yajus verses of Rk recension, edited: G. Thibaut, "Contributions to the Explanation of the Jyotisha-Vedánga", Journal of the Asiatic Society Bengal Vol 46 (1877), p. 411-437
|
||||
Hindi translation: Girja Shankar Shashtri, Jyotisha Karmkanda and Adhyatma Shodh Sansthan, 455 Vasuki Khurd, Daraganj, Allahabad-6.
|
||||
Sanskrit Commentary with Hindi Translation: Vedā̄ṅgajyotiṣam: Yajurvedināṃ paramparayāgatam vistr̥tasaṃskr̥tabhūmikayā. On Vedic astrology and astronomy; critical edited text with Hindi and Sanskrit commentaries. With appendies including Vedic calendar as described by Lagadha for his time. By Lagadha, Ācārya-Śivarāja Kauṇḍinnyāyana, Pramodavardhana Kaundinnyayana, Sammodavardhana Kauṇḍinnyāyana, Somākara
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Sources ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
Vedāṅga jyotiṣa of Lagadha, translated by TSK Sastry, edited by KV Sarma
|
||||
33
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vākyakaraṇa-0.md
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33
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vākyakaraṇa-0.md
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Vākyakaraṇa"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vākyakaraṇa"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:01.196196+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Vākyakaraṇa is the source book of Vākyapañcāṅga which is a type of almanac popular among Tamil speaking people of South India. In Vākyapañcāṅga, the positions of the celestial entities and the timings of celestial events as obtained using the computational methods expounded in the text Vākyakaraṇa. These methods make use of astronomical tables compiled centuries ago. Each entry in such tables is in the form of a vākya, that is, a sentence in Sanskrit, and it represents some numerical value encoded using the kaṭapayādi scheme. Different sets of such vākya-s have been compiled for different celestial entities. One such set is Cāndrvākya-s which is a set of 247 values relating to the position of the Moon. The original set of Cāndrvākya-s are attributed to the legendary Kerala astronomer Vararuci. These were later revised by Mādhava of Saṅgamagrāma, another legendary astronomer and mathematician from Kerala. Such collections of vākya-s have been compiled in respect the five planets Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn. It may be noted that these vākya-s themselves are not part of the Vākyakaraṇa.
|
||||
The authorship of the work has not been fully established. However, internal evidences suggest that the author should be somebody hailing from Kanchi in the Tamil country. The date of composition has been determined as c.1282 CE. Vākyakaraṇa has been commented upon by Sundararāja, a contemporary of Nīlakaṇṭha Somayājī (1444 – 1545)) the author of Tantrasamgraha.
|
||||
Even though Vākyakaraṇa is the source book of Vākyapañcāṅga, almanac makers now do not use this work directly. They make use of later modern adaptions of the work like Jyotiṣa Gaṇita Śāstram by Mūnāmpaṇṇai Kṛṣṇa Jyosyar and Parahita Gaṇitaṃ by Swamy Ayyangar of Karayur.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Contents ==
|
||||
Most of the manuscripts of Vākyakaraṇa are divided into five chapters. However, there is one manuscript that contains an additional sixth chapter and it is believed to a later interpolation. The first chapter is concerned with computations involving the positions of the Sun, the Moon and the Rāhu, the second chapter with the planets, the third chapter with problems involving time, position and direction, the fourth chapter with eclipses and the fifth chapter with the rising and setting of the Mahāpāta-s.
|
||||
T. S. Kuppanna Sastri and K. V. Sarma have critically assessed the contents of the work thus:
|
||||
|
||||
"Being a Karaṇa intended for practical use, ease of computation is the aim, which means that too much accuracy cannot be expected in the work. The vākya-s are given to the nearest minute. The differences between the vākya-s are so great that interpolation gives values several minutes off the correct values. The sines are given for 15 degree intervals and the declination of points on the ecliptic for five degree intervals. The methods of computing the circumstances of the eclipses and the Mahāpāta-s are rough and can only give results not very accurate."
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Additional reading ==
|
||||
The full text of Vākyakaraṇa with the Laghuprakāśikā commentary by Sundararāja critically edited with introduction, English translation and appendices by T. S. Kuppanna sastri and K. V. Sarma is available for free download in the Internet Archive. the appendices of the downloadable version contain the full set of vākya-s in respect of the Moon and the five planets.
|
||||
T. S. Kuppanna Sastri and K. V. Sarma (1962). Vakya Karana with the commentary Laghuprakasika by Sundararaja. Madras (Chennai): Kuppanna Sastri Research Institute. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
|
||||
For a critical study of the contents of Vākyakaraṇa: K Chandra hari (2001). "Vakyakarana - A study". Indian Journal History of Science. 36 (3): 127–149. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
Vākyapañcāṅga
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
18
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_to_the_Universe-0.md
Normal file
18
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_to_the_Universe-0.md
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Welcome to the Universe"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_to_the_Universe"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:03.542499+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Welcome to the Universe: An Astrophysical Tour is a popular science book by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss, and J. Richard Gott, based on an introductory astrophysics course they co-taught at Princeton University. The book was published by the Princeton University Press on September 20, 2016.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
Welcome to the Universe: An Astrophysical Tour has been praised by literary critics. Kirkus Reviews described the book as "an accessible and comprehensive overview of our universe by three eminent astrophysicists" and "an entertaining introduction to astronomy." John Timpane of The Philadelphia Inquirer similarly called it "a well-illustrated tour that includes Pluto, questions of intelligent life, and whether the universe is infinite." Publishers Weekly wrote:Reading through is akin to receiving a private museum tour from an expert scientist; the exhibits include Newton's laws of motion, what will happen after our sun dies, how the space between stars is measured, quasars and black holes, time travel, why the "Big Bang model is far more than 'just a theory,' " and the possibility of other life in the galaxy. The authors present challenging content in accessible prose as they lead readers from our solar system to the edge of the visible universe, getting into the how and the what of just about everything there is to know about the cosmos.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Werner's Nomenclature of Colours"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner's_Nomenclature_of_Colours"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:46.071082+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Werner's Nomenclature of Colours (1814/1821) is an illustrated colour manual authored by Scottish botanical illustrator Patrick Syme. Containing painted colour swatches, the book was based on the colour system compiled by mineralogist Abraham Gottlob Werner. First published in 1814, Werner's Nomenclature was used by Charles Darwin in his scientific observations on the voyage of HMS Beagle. The publication was influential among nineteenth-century colour theorists, artists and decorators, and can be viewed as a predecessor of modern named colour systems such as Pantone. The colours are illustrated and described, and examples shown of their use in ornithological plates in The Anatomy of Colour by Patrick Baty.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
Online edition
|
||||
Scanned book (1821)
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "What If the Moon Didn't Exist"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_If_the_Moon_Didn't_Exist"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:04.711077+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
What if the Moon Didn't Exist is a collection of speculative articles about different versions of Earth, published in book form in 1993. They were originally published in Astronomy magazine.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Contents ==
|
||||
The individual scenarios are:
|
||||
|
||||
Solon – Earth without a Moon
|
||||
Lunholm – Moon closer to Earth
|
||||
Petiel – Earth with less mass
|
||||
Urania – Earth's axis tilted like that of Uranus
|
||||
Granstar – More massive Sun
|
||||
Antar – Effects if a supernova exploded near Earth
|
||||
Cerberon – Star passing through the Solar System
|
||||
Diablo – Black hole passing through the Earth
|
||||
Seeing the world via infrared
|
||||
Effects of ozone layer depletion
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
Reviews in Publishers Weekly and Kirkus said that the first several stories were interesting, but noted that the conceit grew repetitive.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
What If the Moon Didn't Exist? Neil F. Comins, published by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
|
||||
Reviews
|
||||
344
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuktibhāṣā-0.md
Normal file
344
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuktibhāṣā-0.md
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,344 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Yuktibhāṣā"
|
||||
chunk: 1/2
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuktibhāṣā"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:35:06.005841+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Yuktibhāṣā (Malayalam: യുക്തിഭാഷ, lit. 'Rationale'), also known as Gaṇita-yukti-bhāṣā and Gaṇitanyāyasaṅgraha (English: Compendium of Astronomical Rationale), is a treatise on mathematics and astronomy, written by the Indian astronomer Jyeṣṭhadeva of the Kerala school of mathematics around 1530. The treatise, written in Malayalam, is a consolidation of the discoveries by Madhava of Sangamagrama, Nilakantha Somayaji, Parameshvara Nambudiri, Jyeṣṭhadeva, Achyuta Piṣāraṭi, and other astronomer-mathematicians of the Kerala school. It also exists in a Sanskrit version, with unclear author and date, composed as a rough translation of the Malayalam original.
|
||||
The work contains proofs and derivations of the theorems that it presents. The Yuktibhāṣā demonstrates that at least some early Indian scholars in astronomy and computation had the concept of proofs.
|
||||
Some of its important topics include the infinite series expansions of functions; power series, including of π and π/4; trigonometric series of sine, cosine, and arctangent; Taylor series, including second and third order approximations of sine and cosine; radii, diameters, and circumferences.
|
||||
Yuktibhāṣā mainly gives rationale for the results in Nilakantha's Tantrasamgraha. It is regarded as an early work containing techniques involving infinite series, including series expansions of certain trigonometric functions, predating the works of Newton and Leibniz by approximately two centuries. However, it did not combine several ideas under the unifying concepts of the derivative and the integral, show the connection between the two, or turn calculus into the powerful problem-solving tool we have today. The treatise was largely unnoticed outside India, as it was written in the local language of Malayalam. In modern times, due to wider international cooperation in mathematics, the wider world has taken notice of the work. For example, the University of Oxford and the British Royal Society have given attribution to pioneering mathematical theorems of Indian origin that predate their Western counterparts.
|
||||
|
||||
== Contents ==
|
||||
Yuktibhāṣā contains most of the developments of the earlier Kerala school, particularly those of Madhava and Nilakantha Somayaji. The text is divided into two parts – the former deals with mathematical analysis and the latter with astronomy. Beyond this, the continuous text does not have any further division into subjects or topics, so published editions divide the work into chapters based on editorial judgment.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Mathematics ===
|
||||
|
||||
The subjects treated in the mathematics part of the Yuktibhāṣā can be divided into seven chapters:
|
||||
|
||||
parikarma: logistics (the eight mathematical operations)
|
||||
daśapraśna: ten problems involving logistics
|
||||
bhinnagaṇita: arithmetic of fractions
|
||||
trairāśika: rule of three
|
||||
kuṭṭakāra: pulverisation (linear indeterminate equations)
|
||||
paridhi-vyāsa: relation between circumference and diameter: infinite series and approximations for π
|
||||
jyānayana: derivation of Rsines: infinite series and approximations for sines.
|
||||
The first four chapters of the section contain elementary mathematics, such as division, the Pythagorean theorem, square roots, etc. Novel ideas are not discussed until the sixth chapter on the circumference of a circle. Yuktibhāṣā contains a derivation and proof for the power series of inverse tangent discovered by Madhava. In the text, Jyeṣṭhadeva describes Madhava's series in the following manner:
|
||||
|
||||
The first term is the product of the given sine and radius of the desired arc divided by the cosine of the arc. The succeeding terms are obtained by a process of iteration when the first term is repeatedly multiplied by the square of the sine and divided by the square of the cosine. All the terms are then divided by the odd numbers 1, 3, 5, .... The arc is obtained by adding and subtracting respectively the terms of odd rank and those of even rank. It is laid down that the sine of the arc or that of its complement whichever is the smaller should be taken here as the given sine. Otherwise the terms obtained by this above iteration will not tend to the vanishing magnitude.
|
||||
In modern mathematical notation,
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
r
|
||||
θ
|
||||
=
|
||||
|
||||
r
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
sin
|
||||
|
||||
θ
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
cos
|
||||
|
||||
θ
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
−
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
r
|
||||
3
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
sin
|
||||
|
||||
3
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
θ
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
cos
|
||||
|
||||
3
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
θ
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
+
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
r
|
||||
5
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
sin
|
||||
|
||||
5
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
θ
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
cos
|
||||
|
||||
5
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
θ
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
−
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
r
|
||||
7
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
sin
|
||||
|
||||
7
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
θ
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
cos
|
||||
|
||||
7
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
θ
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
+
|
||||
⋯
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
{\displaystyle r\theta ={r{\frac {\sin \theta }{\cos \theta }}}-{\frac {r}{3}}{\frac {\sin ^{3}\theta }{\cos ^{3}\theta }}+{\frac {r}{5}}{\frac {\sin ^{5}\theta }{\cos ^{5}\theta }}-{\frac {r}{7}}{\frac {\sin ^{7}\theta }{\cos ^{7}\theta }}+\cdots }
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
or, expressed in terms of tangents,
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
θ
|
||||
=
|
||||
tan
|
||||
|
||||
θ
|
||||
−
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
1
|
||||
3
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
tan
|
||||
|
||||
3
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
θ
|
||||
+
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
1
|
||||
5
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
tan
|
||||
|
||||
5
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
θ
|
||||
−
|
||||
⋯
|
||||
|
||||
,
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
{\displaystyle \theta =\tan \theta -{\frac {1}{3}}\tan ^{3}\theta +{\frac {1}{5}}\tan ^{5}\theta -\cdots \ ,}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
which in Europe was conventionally called Gregory's series after James Gregory, who independently discovered it in 1671.
|
||||
The text also contains Madhava's infinite series expansion of π which he obtained from the expansion of the arc-tangent function.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
π
|
||||
4
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
=
|
||||
1
|
||||
−
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
1
|
||||
3
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
+
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
1
|
||||
5
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
−
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
1
|
||||
7
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
+
|
||||
⋯
|
||||
+
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
(
|
||||
−
|
||||
1
|
||||
|
||||
)
|
||||
|
||||
n
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
2
|
||||
n
|
||||
+
|
||||
1
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
+
|
||||
⋯
|
||||
|
||||
,
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
{\displaystyle {\frac {\pi }{4}}=1-{\frac {1}{3}}+{\frac {1}{5}}-{\frac {1}{7}}+\cdots +{\frac {(-1)^{n}}{2n+1}}+\cdots \ ,}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
which in Europe was conventionally called Leibniz's series, after Gottfried Leibniz who independently discovered it in 1673.
|
||||
Using a rational approximation of this series, Jyeṣṭhadeva gave values of π as 3.14159265359, correct to 11 decimals, and as 3.1415926535898, correct to 13 decimals.
|
||||
The text describes two methods for computing the value of π. First, obtain a rapidly converging series by transforming the original infinite series of π. By doing so, the first 21 terms of the infinite series
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
π
|
||||
=
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
12
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
(
|
||||
|
||||
1
|
||||
−
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
1
|
||||
|
||||
3
|
||||
⋅
|
||||
3
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
+
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
1
|
||||
|
||||
5
|
||||
⋅
|
||||
|
||||
3
|
||||
|
||||
2
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
−
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
1
|
||||
|
||||
7
|
||||
⋅
|
||||
|
||||
3
|
||||
|
||||
3
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
+
|
||||
⋯
|
||||
|
||||
)
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
{\displaystyle \pi ={\sqrt {12}}\left(1-{1 \over 3\cdot 3}+{1 \over 5\cdot 3^{2}}-{1 \over 7\cdot 3^{3}}+\cdots \right)}
|
||||
|
||||
Some files were not shown because too many files have changed in this diff Show More
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Reference in New Issue
Block a user