September 22

Are You Sure ... (September 22, 2020)

A nomogram (from Greek νόμος nomos, "law" and γραμμή grammē, "line"), also called a nomograph, alignment chart or abaque, is a graphical calculating device, a two-dimensional diagram designed to allow the approximate graphical computation of a mathematical function.

• ... that engineer and mathematician Philbert Maurice d'Ocagne invented the nomograph, a chart for the computation of algebraic equations?

• ... that physician and researcher Alice Hamilton was a leading expert in the field of occupational health and a pioneer of industrial toxicology; and that Hamilton was also a social-welfare reformer, humanitarian, peace activist, and a resident-volunteer at Hull House in Chicago?

• ... that mathematician Shoshichi Kobayashi studied Riemannian and complex manifolds, transformation groups of geometric structures, and Lie algebras?

• ... that Dennis Paulson of Mars trained for his historic reality television show by reviewing data from the 2015 MAVEN probe concerning the deterioration of Mars’ atmosphere due to solar storms — a loss of atmosphere to space which likely played a key role in Mars' gradual shift from its carbon dioxide-dominated atmosphere to the cold, arid planet seen today?

Screenshot: Are You Sure (September 22, 2020)

On This Day in History and Fiction

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  1547: Philologist, mathematician, astronomer, and poet Philipp Nicodemus Frischlin born. His prolific and versatile genius will produce a great variety of works, but his reckless life and libelous letters will lead to imprisonment.

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  1624: Math photographer Cantor Parabola captures unprecedented images of Renaissance-era crimes against mathematical constants.

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  1703: Mathematician and scientist Vincenzo Viviani dies. In 1660, Viviani and Giovanni Alfonso Borelli conducted an experiment to determine the speed of sound. Timing the difference between the seeing the flash and hearing the sound of a cannon shot at a distance, they calculated a value of 350 meters per second (m/s), considerably better than the previous value of 478 m/s obtained by Pierre Gassendi.

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  1970: Physician, research scientist, and author Alice Hamilton dies. She was a leading expert in the field of occupational health and a pioneer in the field of industrial toxicology.

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  1974: Physicist Winfried Otto Schumann dies. He predicted the existence of Schumann resonances, a series of low-frequency resonances caused by lightning discharges in the atmosphere.

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  2012: Mathematician, author, activist, and academic Irving Adler dies. He was a plaintiff in the McCarthy-era case Adler vs. Board of Education.

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  2014: The MAVEN probe reaches Mars and is inserted into an areocentric elliptic orbit 6,200 km (3,900 mi) by 150 km (93 mi) above the planet's surface.

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  2017: Dennis Paulson celebrates third anniversary the MAVEN probe reaching Mars.