In May 1690 Swiss Mathematician Jakob Bernoulli proposed the following problem…“To find the curve assumed by a loose string (or chain) hung freely from two fixed points”.
Galileo had earlier attempted to solve the problem, but his solution of a simple parabolic curve was proved incorrect in 1646 by the Dutch Mathematician and Scientist Christian Huygens. Finally in June 1691 three correct solutions to the problem were submitted, by Huygens, Gottfried von Leibniz and Jakob’s brother, Johann Bernoulli. The curve which solved the problem was determined to be a catenary, a function of hyperbolic cosine [cosh(x)].
The catenary curve has been immortalized in the Gateway Arch constructed in the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.
Many prople think the Gateway Arch is a parabola, but it is instead a catenary. To be more precise it is a weighted catenary. Its base is thicker than its vertex.
The monument opened to the public on June 10, 1967. It is the tallest man-made monument in the United States.
Most scholars credit Leibniz, along with Sir Isaac Newton, with the discovery of calculus (differential and integral calculus). Leibniz introduced several notations used to this day, for instance the integral sign ∫ representing an elongated S, from the Latin word summa and the d used for differentials, from the Latin word differentia. This cleverly suggestive notation for the calculus is probably his most enduring mathematical legacy.
Euler’s number, e, is different from Euler’s constant, γ.
e is also a constant and is sometimes called Napier’s number, but using e for its notation was retained to honor Euler. e was discovered not by Euler or by Napier,but by Jacob Bernoulli when he was studying compound interest.
e is irrational and transcendental. e is approximately equal to 2.71828…
Euler’s constant, γ, is also called the Euler-Mascheroni constant. It is the limiting difference between the harmonic series and the natural logarithm.
γ has not been proven to be irrational or transcendental, or rational. γ is approximately equal to 0.57721…
“Constant Motion”, the first single from Dream Theater’s 2007 album Systematic Chaos, was accompanied by a music video which was the band’s first video in over a decade. The album was their first for Roadrunner Records; the band had declined to renew their contract with Atlantic, due to that label’s failure to properly market the band (such as filming music videos.) Ironically, shortly after they changed labels, Roadrunner was purchased by Atlantic Records.
The Plymouth Road Runner Was a muscle car sold between 1968 and 1980.
Plymouth paid Warner Brothers $50,000 to use the name Road Runner and also the cartoon character’s “beep beep” sound. Plymouth spent $10,000 developing the beep beep horn.
In cricket, a runner is a team member who runs between the wickets for a batsman who is injured and cannot himself run, though he is still capable of striking the ball.
The Snowy River is a major river in south-eastern Australia. It originates on the slopes of Mount Kosciuszko, Australia’s highest mainland peak, draining the eastern slopes of the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales, before flowing through the Alpine National Park and the Snowy River National Park in Victoria and emptying into Bass Strait.
Virus Bering was a Danish born, Russian explorer. The Bering Strait was named after him, posthumously. He was not the first Russian to pass through the strait that bears his name. Semyon Dezhnev and his expedition was the first.
ETA: ninja’d but my play still works.
Prions appear to be self-reproducing proteins that cause infectious disease, but some researchers conjecture that each type of prion has an undiscovered virus that assists its reproduction.
Works how? I see our posts intersect with “a” and with “the.” What am I missing? (The /oog and associated Spoiler box is off-limits.)
Prominent in 16th-century England was the Dudley family, led by John, effectively Regent for King Edward VI, and 1st Duke of Northumberland. But the Dudleys supported Lady Jane Grey (John’s daughter-in-law) for Queen so lost favor when Queen Mary (afterwords nicknamed `the Bloody’) took the throne instead. John himself was unheaded at Tower Hill (where John’s father had also been unheaded for treaosn 44 years earlier), but his son and heir Ambrose, a distinguished soldier, was eventually released after languishing under a death sentence. Although he never became a Duke like his father, Ambrose’s fortunes improved when Queen Elizabeth took the throne: his younger brother Robert was the Queen’s lover.
We don’t even know what trivia will be posted tomorrow, let alone three years from now.
John F. Kennedy rarely watched a movie through to the end. Friends described him as so restless and impatient that he often left before a movie was even half over.
More: Kennedy’s Pulitzer was for his 1956 Profiles in Courage, about eight US Senators who risked their careers for their beliefs. I say “his” work but really the main writer was JFK’s speechwriter Theodore Sorensen. Still, it was Kennedy who accepted the Pulitzer.