# Coincidentally aptly named scientific phenomena, laws or equations **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 3, 2019, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coincidentally-aptly-named-scientific-phenomena-laws-or-equations/838133 "2019-08-03T21:22:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coincidentally-aptly-named-scientific-phenomena-laws-or-equations/838133/21 "2019-08-12T17:31:30Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > Did Proxmire really think Lie algebras were about lying? Proxmire’s main (only) claim to fame was going around ridiculing research grants that sounded (to his limited brain) risible. I can’t document this, but I believe he did. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coincidentally-aptly-named-scientific-phenomena-laws-or-equations/838133/22 "2019-08-12T18:36:15Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Proxmire’s main (only) claim to fame was going around ridiculing research grants that sounded (to his limited brain) risible. I can’t document this, but I believe he did. It’s easy to document Proxmire’s ridiculing research. He even created the Golden Fleece Award to do it: > **[Golden Fleece Award](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Fleece_Award)** > > The Golden Fleece Award (1975–1988) was a tongue-in-cheek award given to public officials in the United States for squandering public money. Its name is sardonically taken from the actual Order of the Golden Fleece, a prestigious chivalric award created in the late 15th century. It is a play on the transitive verb fleece, or charging excessively for goods or services. > United States Senator William Proxmire, Democrat from Wisconsin, began to issue the Golden Fleece Award in 1975 in monthly pre... Maybe you meant that it was hard to document that he found the research funny. Of course, that was in his head, but I’ll bet you can find writings or quotations from him where asserted this. Larry Niven wrote the short story _The Return of William Proxmire_ in 1989 to poke fun at _him_: > **[The Return of William Proxmire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Return_of_William_Proxmire)** > > "The Return of William Proxmire" is a short story by Larry Niven first published in 1989 in the anthology What Might Have Been? Volume 1: Alternate Empires, edited by Gregory Benford. > The short story was reprinted in Niven's collection N-Space, as well as the Robert A. Heinlein retrospective Requiem. > The point-of-view character, a physicist with a time-travel theory, is approached by retired Senator William Proxmire. Proxmire has come up with a scheme to abolish such money-wasters (as Proxm... ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coincidentally-aptly-named-scientific-phenomena-laws-or-equations/838133/23 "2019-08-12T18:41:17Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Maybe you meant that it was hard to document that he found the research funny. Of course, that was in his head, but I’ll bet you can find writings or quotations from him where asserted this. The question is whether Proxmire had the particular misunderstanding about “Lie Algebras” (it’s certainly possible that he did, but it sounds a bit too good to be true). ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coincidentally-aptly-named-scientific-phenomena-laws-or-equations/838133/24 "2019-08-12T23:52:39Z")
I don’t know if this belongs in this thread, but I will tell it anyway. There is a mathematics book that gives the usual preventative measures in set theory in order to avoid Russell’s paradox (is the set of all sets that are not members of themselves a member of itself?) and then goes on to add “This prophylaxis guarantees safe sets.” ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coincidentally-aptly-named-scientific-phenomena-laws-or-equations/838133/25 "2019-08-13T00:24:15Z")
What do you get when you cross an elephant and a mouse? Elephant_Mouse_sine(theta). ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coincidentally-aptly-named-scientific-phenomena-laws-or-equations/838133/26 "2019-08-13T13:24:39Z")
What is the integral of d(cabin)/cabin? Houseboat (log cabin + C) ---
**Author:** ![kk\_fusion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kk_fusion/32/15276_2.png) [@kk\_fusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kk_fusion)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2019, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coincidentally-aptly-named-scientific-phenomena-laws-or-equations/838133/27 "2019-10-31T09:28:57Z")
Bumping this as I’ve been recently thinking about examples (judge if they count): - Down Syndrome (also _Down’s syndrome_, researched by John Langdon Down), is characterized by (among other things) hanging eyelids. - Alfred _Nobel_ founded a yearly prize awarded to people who did, well, noble things (included in science). - Felix _Wankel_ constructed a two-phase rotary engine that is today named after him. The name roughly translates to “wobble”. ---
**Author:** ![Bert\_Nobbins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@Bert\_Nobbins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bert_Nobbins)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2019, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coincidentally-aptly-named-scientific-phenomena-laws-or-equations/838133/28 "2019-10-31T19:30:56Z")
Grain-Oriented Silicon Steel (prized for its magnetic qualities) was invented by Norman P. Goss. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman\_P.\_Goss](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_P._Goss) ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2019, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coincidentally-aptly-named-scientific-phenomena-laws-or-equations/838133/29 "2019-10-31T21:19:52Z")
[Near miss on this one.](https://www.theguardian.com/law/2019/sep/17/lord-pannick-lord-keen-supreme-court-hearing-parliament-suspension) ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2019, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coincidentally-aptly-named-scientific-phenomena-laws-or-equations/838133/30 "2019-10-31T21:50:12Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > [Near miss on this one.](https://www.theguardian.com/law/2019/sep/17/lord-pannick-lord-keen-supreme-court-hearing-parliament-suspension) If we’re going to allow legal cases, Loving v. Virginia has got to be somewhere near the top of the list. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coincidentally-aptly-named-scientific-phenomena-laws-or-equations/838133.md?page=1)