There's something I really like about how, in the sciences, so many things get named after people from so many different cultures that you're routinely introduced to new names just from reading about stuff

Like, reading about chemistry and you come across the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction. Who (in the english-speaking world) had ever heard the names Belousov or Zhabotinsky before learning about that? Or in physics, Faddeev-Popov ghosts. Or Zermelo-Frenkel set theory in mathematics.

Follow

But then you come across the Chinese Remainder Theorem, so named because no one in the western world can apparently pronounce/remember the name Qin Jiushao.

And Polish notation, so named because no one outside of Poland can pronounce/remember the name Łukasiewicz.

they could have at least called it Jan notation, after his first name. Jan is not a difficult name at all

Sign in to participate in the conversation
Awoo Space

Awoo.space is a Mastodon instance where members can rely on a team of moderators to help resolve conflict, and limits federation with other instances using a specific access list to minimize abuse.

While mature content is allowed here, we strongly believe in being able to choose to engage with content on your own terms, so please make sure to put mature and potentially sensitive content behind the CW feature with enough description that people know what it's about.

Before signing up, please read our community guidelines. While it's a very broad swath of topics it covers, please do your best! We believe that as long as you're putting forth genuine effort to limit harm you might cause – even if you haven't read the document – you'll be okay!