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The least-venerated people in history

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    The least-venerated people in history

    I was thinking that James Clerk Maxwell is up there with Kepler, Newton and Einstein. Yet most people have never heard of hi.m

    #2
    I've long thought that, even more than Maxwell, Ludwig Boltzmann is almost completely unknown despite - as I understand it - basically developing statistical thermodynamics.

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      #3
      I'm not very venerated. Historically or otherwise.

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        #4
        Venereal, possibly.

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          #5
          That's weirder written down than it was in my head.

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            #6
            Originally posted by San Bernardhinault View Post
            I've long thought that, even more than Maxwell, Ludwig Boltzmann is almost completely unknown despite - as I understand it - basically developing statistical thermodynamics.
            True in his lifetime as well, IIRC. The story I've got in my head was that he committed suicide in frustrated anonymity, despondent that his theories were just being ignored. Within half a century of dying, his work was seen as vital. But Quantum theory had happened in the meantime, so the implications of what he had done changed - it was seen as a major contribution to a wider revolution, rather than an esoteric bit of maths that worked but had no physical meaning and that a 'proper' non-probabilistic classical explanation for what was going on would be developed sooner or later to replace it.

            But I would demur that Boltzmann is unknown in the physics community. Maybe to the wider public, but anyone who has studied the subject in further education, not even higher education, will have come across his name attached to important concepts.
            Last edited by Janik; 22-08-2018, 23:14.

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              #7
              True, but if James Clerk Maxwell qualifies for this thread, Boltzmann really does.

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                #8
                One also wonders how well known statistical mechanics is. Whereas you could tell people that Maxwell gave an explanation for what light was and why it travelled at a certain speed, and they would probably regard that as important stuff. But Maxwell is well enough known for his major work to be worth someone's while selling on a t-shirt, though most like this put his equations* in God's mouth.
                * - or the modern, vector formulation therefore. I'm sure I saw the Maxwell's actual work, which was not in a nice concise vector form, on a poster on Uni hall of residence walls back in the day.
                Last edited by Janik; 23-08-2018, 00:06.

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                  #9
                  What James Clark Maxwell wrote:- https://ethw.org/w/images/9/99/Maxwell_image_05.jpg
                  The t-shirt is pithier.

                  My nomination for the physicist whose general fame is not as high as his real standing is Niels Bohr. Not exactly unknown, but not having the same fame as Albert Einstein despite being one of the few who was his genuine peer. Indeed the two clashed philosophically over Bohr's Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, and experiment has sided with Bohr in this case. Who else took on Einstein over a question of physics and the nature of reality and came out on top?

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                    #10
                    Who else took on Einstein over a question of physics and the nature of reality and came out on top?
                    George Lemaitre for one. [Edit: unless you define physics relatively narrowly to exclude such matters as Einstein's cosmological constant]

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                      #11
                      I think the answer is probably Women.

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                        #12
                        Boltzmann brains are fairly well known, which suggests he's not entirely forgotten.

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                          #13
                          Originally posted by Furtho View Post
                          I think the answer is probably Women.
                          Yup.

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                            #14
                            That guy Humboldt who travelled everywhere and mapped previously unmapped regions. He has a penguin named after him. A few people in my book group have read the book about him that asks why on earth he's not at all well known.

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                              #15
                              He's got his own squid!

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                                #16
                                The person who invented Battersea Dog's Home.

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                                  #17
                                  Humboldt's not a bad call. I had to google him a couple of years back, when I realised that I knew very little about even though he had US counties, ocean currents, squids, penguins and mountains and all sorts named after him.

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                                    #18
                                    Although, I suppose, having all this stuff named after him might mean that he is venerated. He's just not well known.

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                                      #19
                                      In Sociology, Harriet Martineau was largely ignored for 150 years despite her groundbreaking work of the 1830s. As noted above, there must be other examples of women and people of colour doing essential work but being ignored for decades. Codebreakers, NASA computer programmers, etc.

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                                        #20
                                        Humboldt is anything but in Germany.

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                                          #21
                                          Gramsci was neglected for decades (except maybe in Italy) before being adopted by New Left Review (especially Stuart Hall) in the 60s. Walter Benjamin too, maybe, due to his tragic early death.

                                          In music, Nick Drake was largely unknown until the 90s. Do most people outside the folk scene know who Davey Graham was?

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                                            #22
                                            William Rowan Hamilton is unknown in Ireland anyway apart from my local area of Cabra where he's a local hero,in a moment of inspiration he carved the formula that made him famous into the stonework of the canal bridge where Broombridge railway station now is

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                                              #23
                                              Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                                              Humboldt is anything but in Germany.
                                              I knew his name as a small boy nuts about dinosaurs, since any small boy nuts about dinosaurs worth his salt (mmm, salted nuts) knew that the biggest mounted dino skeleton ever displayed is the Brachiosaurus in the Humboldt Museum in Berlin.

                                              Indeed, it still is, but I believe that subsequent scientific argument has now reclassified the animal as Giraffatitan (stupid name) and the museum itself is no longer named after Humboldt. And I still know nothing about the man himself.

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                                                #24
                                                Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
                                                In music, Nick Drake was largely unknown until the 90s. Do most people outside the folk scene know who Davey Graham was?
                                                The only reason I have knowingly heard Nick Drake, is Kylie Minogue.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Cary Middlecoff was the world's top golfer in 55 and 56. He filled the gap between the end of Hogan and Snead and the rise of Palmer, Player and Nicklaus so is now almost totally forgotten.

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