List of examples of Stigler's law
Encyclopedia
Stigler's law
concerns the supposed tendency of eponymous expressions for scientific discoveries to honor people other than their respective originators.
Examples include:
Stigler's law of eponymy
Stigler's law of eponymy is a process proposed by University of Chicago statistics professor Stephen Stigler in his 1980 publication "Stigler’s law of eponymy". In its simplest and strongest form it says: "No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer." Stigler named the...
concerns the supposed tendency of eponymous expressions for scientific discoveries to honor people other than their respective originators.
Examples include:
A
- Aharonov-Bohm effectAharonov-Bohm effectThe Aharonov–Bohm effect, sometimes called the Ehrenberg–Siday–Aharonov–Bohm effect, is a quantum mechanical phenomenon in which an electrically charged particle is affected by an electromagnetic field , despite being confined to a region in which both the magnetic field B and electric field E are...
. Werner Ehrenberg and Raymond E. Siday first predicted the effect in 1949, and similar effects were later rediscovered by Yakir Aharonov and David Bohm in 1959. - Alzheimer's diseaseAlzheimer's diseaseAlzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
, though named after Alois AlzheimerAlois AlzheimerAloysius "Alois" Alzheimer, was a German psychiatrist and neuropathologist and a colleague of Emil Kraepelin. Alzheimer is credited with identifying the first published case of "presenile dementia", which Kraepelin would later identify as Alzheimer's disease....
, had been previously described by at least half a dozen others before Alzheimer's 1906 report which is often (wrongly) regarded as the first description of the disorder. - AmericaAmericasThe Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
, one continent named after Americo Vespucci (the name was given by GermanGermansThe Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
cartographers Martin WaldseemüllerMartin WaldseemüllerMartin Waldseemüller was a German cartographer...
and Matthias RingmannMatthias RingmannMatthias Ringmann was a German cartographer and humanist poet. He is credited with naming America on the map of his friend Martin Waldseemüller.- Life :...
), although Vespucci was not the first european to find either NorthNorth AmericaNorth America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
or South AmericaSouth AmericaSouth America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
. He participated only to expeditions on the eastern coast of South AmericaSouth AmericaSouth America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, and was not even in command of all of those expeditions. Many other explorers found different parts of the continent before and after him. Those include, for example, Christopher ColumbusChristopher ColumbusChristopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
, who predated Vespucci and is considered to be the discoverer of the AmericasDiscoverer of the AmericasThe discovery of the Americas in modern western history is mainly attributed to the voyages of Christopher Columbus. The discovery of the Americas has also variously been attributed to others, depending on context and definition....
, yet he was supposedly also predated by the Norse vikings, supposedly led by Leif EricsonLeif EricsonLeif Ericson was a Norse explorer who is regarded as the first European to land in North America , nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus...
, who are supposed to have foundNorse colonization of the AmericasThe Norse colonization of the Americas began as early as the 10th century, when Norse sailors explored and settled areas of the North Atlantic, including the northeastern fringes of North America....
Newfoundland. - Arabic numeralsArabic numeralsArabic numerals or Hindu numerals or Hindu-Arabic numerals or Indo-Arabic numerals are the ten digits . They are descended from the Hindu-Arabic numeral system developed by Indian mathematicians, in which a sequence of digits such as "975" is read as a numeral...
, which were invented in IndiaIndian numeralsMost of the positional base 10 numeral systems in the world have originated from India, where the concept of positional numeration was first developed...
. - Arrhenius equationArrhenius equationThe Arrhenius equation is a simple, but remarkably accurate, formula for the temperature dependence of the reaction rate constant, and therefore, rate of a chemical reaction. The equation was first proposed by the Dutch chemist J. H. van 't Hoff in 1884; five years later in 1889, the Swedish...
. The equation was first proposed by the Dutch chemist J. H. van 't Hoff in 1884; five years later in 1889, the Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius provided a physical justification and interpretation for it.
B
- Benford's lawBenford's lawBenford's law, also called the first-digit law, states that in lists of numbers from many real-life sources of data, the leading digit is distributed in a specific, non-uniform way...
, named after physicist Frank BenfordFrank BenfordFrank Albert Benford, Jr., was an American electrical engineer and physicist best known for rediscovering and generalizing Benford's Law, a statistical statement about the occurrence of digits in lists of data.Benford is also known for having devised, in 1937, an instrument for measuring the...
, who stated it in 1938, although it had been previously stated by Simon NewcombSimon NewcombSimon Newcomb was a Canadian-American astronomer and mathematician. Though he had little conventional schooling, he made important contributions to timekeeping as well as writing on economics and statistics and authoring a science fiction novel.-Early life:Simon Newcomb was born in the town of...
in 1881. - Betz' lawBetz' lawBetz's law is a theory about the maximum possible energy to be derived from a "hydraulic wind engine", or a wind turbine such as the Éolienne Bollée , the Eclipse Windmill , and the Aermotor...
, which shows the maximum attainable energy efficiency of a wind turbine, was discovered first by Frederick W. Lanchester. It was subsequently independently rediscovered by Albert BetzAlbert BetzAlbert Betz was a German physicist and a pioneer of wind turbine technology.In 1910 he graduated as a naval engineer from Technische Hochschule Berlin...
and also Nikolai Zhukovsky. - Bode's Law of 1772 states that the distances of the planets from the sun follow a simple arithmetical rule. But it was first stated by Johann Titius in 1766, not J E Bode.
C
- Cartan matrices: first investigated by Wilhelm KillingWilhelm KillingWilhelm Karl Joseph Killing was a German mathematician who made important contributions to the theories of Lie algebras, Lie groups, and non-Euclidean geometry....
. - Cardano's formula: The solution to the cubic functionCubic functionIn mathematics, a cubic function is a function of the formf=ax^3+bx^2+cx+d,\,where a is nonzero; or in other words, a polynomial of degree three. The derivative of a cubic function is a quadratic function...
, it was discovered by Niccolò Fontana TartagliaNiccolò Fontana TartagliaNiccolò Fontana Tartaglia was a mathematician, an engineer , a surveyor and a bookkeeper from the then-Republic of Venice...
. - Cobb–Douglas: A production functionProduction functionIn microeconomics and macroeconomics, a production function is a function that specifies the output of a firm, an industry, or an entire economy for all combinations of inputs...
named after Paul H. Douglas, and Charles W CobbCharles Cobb (economist)Charles Wiggins Cobb was an American mathematician and economist. He published many works on both subjects, however he is most famous for developing the Cobb–Douglas formula in economics. He worked on this project with the economist Paul Douglas while lecturing at the Amherst College in...
, developed earlier by Philip WicksteedPhilip WicksteedPhilip Henry Wicksteed is known primarily as an economist. He was also an English Unitarian theologian , classicist, medievalist, and literary critic....
. - Curie pointCurie pointIn physics and materials science, the Curie temperature , or Curie point, is the temperature at which a ferromagnetic or a ferrimagnetic material becomes paramagnetic on heating; the effect is reversible. A magnet will lose its magnetism if heated above the Curie temperature...
: a critical temperature of phase change in ferromagnetismFerromagnetismFerromagnetism is the basic mechanism by which certain materials form permanent magnets, or are attracted to magnets. In physics, several different types of magnetism are distinguished...
. Named after Pierre CuriePierre CuriePierre Curie was a French physicist, a pioneer in crystallography, magnetism, piezoelectricity and radioactivity, and Nobel laureate. He was the son of Dr. Eugène Curie and Sophie-Claire Depouilly Curie ...
, who reported it in his thesis in 1895, but the phenomenon was found by Claude Pouillet before 1832 (see the footnote on page 6 of ).
D
- Dyson sphereDyson sphereA Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure originally described by Freeman Dyson. Such a "sphere" would be a system of orbiting solar power satellites meant to completely encompass a star and capture most or all of its energy output...
s are named after Freeman DysonFreeman DysonFreeman John Dyson FRS is a British-born American theoretical physicist and mathematician, famous for his work in quantum field theory, solid-state physics, astronomy and nuclear engineering. Dyson is a member of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists...
, but Dyson himself has credited the original idea to Olaf StapledonOlaf StapledonWilliam Olaf Stapledon was a British philosopher and author of several influential works of science fiction.-Life:...
. - "Darwinian evolution" is an often-used name for evolutionEvolutionEvolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
by natural selectionNatural selectionNatural selection is the nonrandom process by which biologic traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of differential reproduction of their bearers. It is a key mechanism of evolution....
. Yet Charles DarwinCharles DarwinCharles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
mentioned, in an annex to "The Origin of Species", eighteen people who had previously expounded the idea, including LamarkJean-Baptiste LamarckJean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de la Marck , often known simply as Lamarck, was a French naturalist...
, Saint-HilaireSaint-Hilaire-People:* Augustin Saint-Hilaire , a French botanist and traveler* Caroline St-Hilaire , a Canadian politician* Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, , a French zoologist...
, Herbert, Grant, Matthew, Haldeman and of course WallaceAlfred Russel WallaceAlfred Russel Wallace, OM, FRS was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist...
.
E
- Euler's numberE (mathematical constant)The mathematical constant ' is the unique real number such that the value of the derivative of the function at the point is equal to 1. The function so defined is called the exponential function, and its inverse is the natural logarithm, or logarithm to base...
: the "discovery" of the constant itself is credited to Jacob Bernoulli, but it is named after Leonhard EulerLeonhard EulerLeonhard Euler was a pioneering Swiss mathematician and physicist. He made important discoveries in fields as diverse as infinitesimal calculus and graph theory. He also introduced much of the modern mathematical terminology and notation, particularly for mathematical analysis, such as the notion...
. - Euler's formulaEuler's formulaEuler's formula, named after Leonhard Euler, is a mathematical formula in complex analysis that establishes the deep relationship between the trigonometric functions and the complex exponential function...
: an equivalent formula was proved by Roger CotesRoger CotesRoger Cotes FRS was an English mathematician, known for working closely with Isaac Newton by proofreading the second edition of his famous book, the Principia, before publication. He also invented the quadrature formulas known as Newton–Cotes formulas and first introduced what is known today as...
30 years before Euler published his proof.
F
- Fermi's golden ruleFermi's golden ruleIn quantum physics, Fermi's golden rule is a way to calculate the transition rate from one energy eigenstate of a quantum system into a continuum of energy eigenstates, due to a perturbation....
, a quantum mechanical calculation, was discovered by Paul DiracPaul DiracPaul Adrien Maurice Dirac, OM, FRS was an English theoretical physicist who made fundamental contributions to the early development of both quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics...
.
G
- Gauss's Theorem: first proved by Ostrogradsky in 1831.
- Gaussian distribution: the normal distribution was introduced by Abraham de MoivreAbraham de MoivreAbraham de Moivre was a French mathematician famous for de Moivre's formula, which links complex numbers and trigonometry, and for his work on the normal distribution and probability theory. He was a friend of Isaac Newton, Edmund Halley, and James Stirling...
in 1733, but named after Carl Friedrich GaussCarl Friedrich GaussJohann Carl Friedrich Gauss was a German mathematician and scientist who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, statistics, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, geophysics, electrostatics, astronomy and optics.Sometimes referred to as the Princeps mathematicorum...
who began using it in 1794. - Gaussian eliminationGaussian eliminationIn linear algebra, Gaussian elimination is an algorithm for solving systems of linear equations. It can also be used to find the rank of a matrix, to calculate the determinant of a matrix, and to calculate the inverse of an invertible square matrix...
: was already in well-known textbooks such as Thomas Simpson's when Gauss in 1809 remarked that he used "common elimination." - Gresham's lawGresham's LawGresham's law is an economic principle that states: "When a government compulsorily overvalues one type of money and undervalues another, the undervalued money will leave the country or disappear from circulation into hoards, while the overvalued money will flood into circulation." It is commonly...
was described by Nicolaus CopernicusNicolaus CopernicusNicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance astronomer and the first person to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe....
in 1519, the year of Thomas GreshamThomas GreshamSir Thomas Gresham was an English merchant and financier who worked for King Edward VI of England and for Edward's half-sisters, Queens Mary I and Elizabeth I.-Family and childhood:...
's birth. - Gröbner basisGröbner basisIn computer algebra, computational algebraic geometry, and computational commutative algebra, a Gröbner basis is a particular kind of generating subset of an ideal I in a polynomial ring R...
: the theory was developed by Bruno BuchbergerBruno BuchbergerBruno Buchberger is Professor of Computer Mathematics at Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria. In his 1965 Ph.D. thesis, he created the theory of Gröbner bases, and has developed this theory throughout his career. He named these objects after his advisor Wolfgang Gröbner...
, who named them after his advisor, Wolfgang GröbnerWolfgang GröbnerWolfgang Gröbner was an Austrian mathematician. His name is best known for the Gröbner basis, used for computations in algebraic geometry...
HIJ
- Halley's comet was observed by astronomers since at least 240 BC, but named after Edmond HalleyEdmond HalleyEdmond Halley FRS was an English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist, and physicist who is best known for computing the orbit of the eponymous Halley's Comet. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain, following in the footsteps of John Flamsteed.-Biography and career:Halley...
who computed its orbit and accurately predicted its return. - Hubble's lawHubble's lawHubble's law is the name for the astronomical observation in physical cosmology that: all objects observed in deep space are found to have a doppler shift observable relative velocity to Earth, and to each other; and that this doppler-shift-measured velocity, of various galaxies receding from...
was derived by Georges LemaîtreGeorges LemaîtreMonsignor Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître was a Belgian priest, astronomer and professor of physics at the Catholic University of Louvain. He was the first person to propose the theory of the expansion of the Universe, widely misattributed to Edwin Hubble...
two years before Edwin HubbleEdwin HubbleEdwin Powell Hubble was an American astronomer who profoundly changed the understanding of the universe by confirming the existence of galaxies other than the Milky Way - our own galaxy...
.
K
- Killing formKilling formIn mathematics, the Killing form, named after Wilhelm Killing, is a symmetric bilinear form that plays a basic role in the theories of Lie groups and Lie algebras...
: invented by Élie CartanÉlie CartanÉlie Joseph Cartan was an influential French mathematician, who did fundamental work in the theory of Lie groups and their geometric applications... - Kuiper beltKuiper beltThe Kuiper belt , sometimes called the Edgeworth–Kuiper belt, is a region of the Solar System beyond the planets extending from the orbit of Neptune to approximately 50 AU from the Sun. It is similar to the asteroid belt, although it is far larger—20 times as wide and 20 to 200 times as massive...
: theoretically described by a number of astronomers before Gerard KuiperGerard KuiperGerard Peter Kuiper , Netherlands – December 24, 1973, Mexico City) was a Dutch-American astronomer after whom the Kuiper belt was named.-Early life:...
; Kuiper theorized that such a belt no longer existed.
L
- Leibniz formula for π: The formula was first discovered by 15th-century Indian mathematician Madhava of SangamagramaMadhava of SangamagramaMādhava of Sañgamāgrama was a prominent Kerala mathematician-astronomer from the town of Irińńālakkuţa near Cochin, Kerala, India. He is considered the founder of the Kerala School of Astronomy and Mathematics...
, but it is named after Gottfried LeibnizGottfried LeibnizGottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a German philosopher and mathematician. He wrote in different languages, primarily in Latin , French and German ....
after the latter discovered it independently 300 years later. - Linus's lawLinus's LawThere are two statements named Linus's Law: one by Eric S. Raymond concerning software bug detection by a community, and the other by Linus Torvalds about the motivations of programmers.- By Eric Raymond :...
: named after Linus TorvaldsLinus TorvaldsLinus Benedict Torvalds is a Finnish software engineer and hacker, best known for having initiated the development of the open source Linux kernel. He later became the chief architect of the Linux kernel, and now acts as the project's coordinator...
, but actually described by Eric S. RaymondEric S. RaymondEric Steven Raymond , often referred to as ESR, is an American computer programmer, author and open source software advocate. After the 1997 publication of The Cathedral and the Bazaar, Raymond was for a number of years frequently quoted as an unofficial spokesman for the open source movement...
in The Cathedral and the BazaarThe Cathedral and the BazaarThe Cathedral and the Bazaar is an essay by Eric S. Raymond on software engineering methods, based on his observations of the Linux kernel development process and his experiences managing an open source project, fetchmail. It examines the struggle between top-down and bottom-up design...
.
M
- Matthew effectMatthew effect (sociology)In sociology, the Matthew effect is the phenomenon where "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer". Those who possess power and economic or social capital can leverage those resources to gain more power or capital. The term was first coined by sociologist Robert K...
, named by Robert K. MertonRobert K. MertonRobert King Merton was a distinguished American sociologist. He spent most of his career teaching at Columbia University, where he attained the rank of University Professor...
after the writer of the Gospel of MatthewGospel of MatthewThe Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...
. - Meadow's LawMeadow's lawMeadow's Law was a precept much in use until recently in the field of child protection, specifically by those investigating cases of multiple cot or crib death — SIDS — within a single family.-History:...
, the formulation that one cot death in a family is tragic, two suspicious, and three murder. originally described by D.J. and V.J.M. Di Maio.
NO
- Newton's first and second laws of mechanicsNewton's laws of motionNewton's laws of motion are three physical laws that form the basis for classical mechanics. They describe the relationship between the forces acting on a body and its motion due to those forces...
where known and proposed in separate ways by GalileoGalileo GalileiGalileo Galilei , was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism...
, HookeRobert HookeRobert Hooke FRS was an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath.His adult life comprised three distinct periods: as a scientific inquirer lacking money; achieving great wealth and standing through his reputation for hard work and scrupulous honesty following the great fire of 1666, but...
and Huygens before NewtonIsaac NewtonSir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
did in his Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica. Newton only owns the discovery of the third one.
PQR
- Pascal's trianglePascal's triangleIn mathematics, Pascal's triangle is a triangular array of the binomial coefficients in a triangle. It is named after the French mathematician, Blaise Pascal...
:named after and discovered by Pascal, but identified several times before him independently. - Pell's equationPell's equationPell's equation is any Diophantine equation of the formx^2-ny^2=1\,where n is a nonsquare integer. The word Diophantine means that integer values of x and y are sought. Trivially, x = 1 and y = 0 always solve this equation...
, studied in ancient India, but mistakenly attributed to John PellJohn Pell-Early life:He was born at Southwick in Sussex. He was educated at Steyning Grammar School, and entered Trinity College, Cambridge, at the age of thirteen. During his university career he became an accomplished linguist, and even before he took his B.A. degree corresponded with Henry Briggs and...
by Leonhard EulerLeonhard EulerLeonhard Euler was a pioneering Swiss mathematician and physicist. He made important discoveries in fields as diverse as infinitesimal calculus and graph theory. He also introduced much of the modern mathematical terminology and notation, particularly for mathematical analysis, such as the notion...
. Apparently Euler confused Lord Brouncker (first European mathematician to find a general solution of the equation) with Pell. - Playfair cipherPlayfair cipherThe Playfair cipher or Playfair square is a manual symmetric encryption technique and was the first literal digraph substitution cipher. The scheme was invented in 1854 by Charles Wheatstone, but bears the name of Lord Playfair who promoted the use of the cipher.The technique encrypts pairs of...
, invented by Charles WheatstoneCharles WheatstoneSir Charles Wheatstone FRS , was an English scientist and inventor of many scientific breakthroughs of the Victorian era, including the English concertina, the stereoscope , and the Playfair cipher...
in 1854, but named after Lord Playfair who promoted its use. - Poisson spot: predicted by Fresnel's theory of diffraction, named after Poisson, who ridiculed the theory, especially its prediction of the existence of this spot
- Pythagorean theoremPythagorean theoremIn mathematics, the Pythagorean theorem or Pythagoras' theorem is a relation in Euclidean geometry among the three sides of a right triangle...
, named after the mathematician PythagorasPythagorasPythagoras of Samos was an Ionian Greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. Most of the information about Pythagoras was written down centuries after he lived, so very little reliable information is known about him...
, although it was known before him to Babylonian mathematiciansBabylonian mathematicsBabylonian mathematics refers to any mathematics of the people of Mesopotamia, from the days of the early Sumerians to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC. Babylonian mathematical texts are plentiful and well edited...
(although it is not known if the Babylonians possesed a proof of the result; yet it is not known either, whether Pythagoras proved the result).
S
- SalmonellaSalmonellaSalmonella is a genus of rod-shaped, Gram-negative, non-spore-forming, predominantly motile enterobacteria with diameters around 0.7 to 1.5 µm, lengths from 2 to 5 µm, and flagella which grade in all directions . They are chemoorganotrophs, obtaining their energy from oxidation and reduction...
, named after Daniel Elmer SalmonDaniel Elmer SalmonDaniel Elmer Salmon was a veterinary surgeon. He earned the first D.V.M. degree awarded in the United States, and spent his career studying animal diseases for the U.S. Department of Agriculture...
, but discovered by Theobald SmithTheobald SmithTheobald Smith ForMemRS was a pioneering epidemiologist and pathologist and is widely-considered to be America's first internationally-significant medical research scientist.- Education :...
. - Simpson's paradoxSimpson's paradoxIn probability and statistics, Simpson's paradox is a paradox in which a correlation present in different groups is reversed when the groups are combined. This result is often encountered in social-science and medical-science statistics, and it occurs when frequencydata are hastily given causal...
, a term introduced by Colin R. Blyth in 1972; but Edward Simpson did not actually discover this statistical paradox. - Snell's lawSnell's lawIn optics and physics, Snell's law is a formula used to describe the relationship between the angles of incidence and refraction, when referring to light or other waves passing through a boundary between two different isotropic media, such as water and glass...
of refraction, named after Willebrord SnelliusWillebrord SnelliusWillebrord Snellius was a Dutch astronomer and mathematician. In the west, especially the English speaking countries, his name has been attached to the law of refraction of light for several centuries, but it is now known that this law was first discovered by Ibn Sahl in 984...
, a dutch scientist, also known as Descartes law of refraction (after Rene DescartesRené DescartesRené Descartes ; was a French philosopher and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day...
) was discovered by Ibn SahlIbn SahlThis article is about the physicist. For the physician, see Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari. For the poet, see Ibn Sahl of Sevilla.Ibn Sahl was a Muslim Persian mathematician, physicist and optics engineer of the Islamic Golden Age associated with the Abbasid court of Baghdad...
. - Stigler's Law, attributed by Stigler himself to Robert K. MertonRobert K. MertonRobert King Merton was a distinguished American sociologist. He spent most of his career teaching at Columbia University, where he attained the rank of University Professor...
.
TU
- The Tetralogy of FallotTetralogy of FallotTetralogy of Fallot is a congenital heart defect which is classically understood to involve four anatomical abnormalities...
was described in 1672 by Niels Stensen, but named after Étienne-Louis Arthur FallotEtienne FallotÉtienne-Louis Arthur Fallot was a French physician.Fallot attended medical school in Montpellier in 1867.While in residence in Marseille he wrote a thesis on pneumothorax...
who also described it in 1888.
V
- Vigenère cipherVigenère cipherThe Vigenère cipher is a method of encrypting alphabetic text by using a series of different Caesar ciphers based on the letters of a keyword. It is a simple form of polyalphabetic substitution....
was originally described by Giovan Battista BellasoGiovan Battista Bellaso-Biography:Bellaso was born of a distinguished family in 1505. His father was Piervincenzo, a patrician of Brescia, owner since the 15th century of a house in town and a suburban estate in Capriano, in a neighborhood called Fenili Belasi , including the Holy Trinity chapel. The chaplain was...
in his 1553 book La cifra del. Sig. Giovan Battista Bellaso, but later mis-attributed to Blaise de VigenèreBlaise de VigenèreBlaise de Vigenère was a French diplomat and cryptographer. The Vigenère cipher is so named due to the cipher being incorrectly attributed to him in the 19th century....
in the 19th century.
WX
- Wang tiles were hypothesized by Hao Wang not to exist, but an example was constructed by his student Robert BergerRobert Berger (mathematician)Robert Berger is known for inventing the first aperiodic tiling using a set of 20,426 distinct tile shapes.The unexpected existence of aperiodic tilings, although not Berger's explicit construction of them, follows from another result proved by Berger: that the so-called domino problem is...
. - Wheatstone bridgeWheatstone bridgeA Wheatstone bridge is an electrical circuit used to measure an unknown electrical resistance by balancing two legs of a bridge circuit, one leg of which includes the unknown component. Its operation is similar to the original potentiometer. It was invented by Samuel Hunter Christie in 1833 and...
, an electrical measuring instrumentMeasuring instrumentIn the physical sciences, quality assurance, and engineering, measurement is the activity of obtaining and comparing physical quantities of real-world objects and events. Established standard objects and events are used as units, and the process of measurement gives a number relating the item...
invented by Samuel Hunter ChristieSamuel Hunter ChristieSamuel Hunter Christie was a British scientist and mathematician.He studied mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge where he was second wrangler. He was particularly interested in magnetism, studying the earth's magnetic field and designing improvements to the magnetic compass...
in 1833, but named after Sir Charles WheatstoneCharles WheatstoneSir Charles Wheatstone FRS , was an English scientist and inventor of many scientific breakthroughs of the Victorian era, including the English concertina, the stereoscope , and the Playfair cipher...
who improved and popularized it in 1843. - Wike's law of low odd primesWike's law of low odd primesWike's law of low odd primes is a methodological principle to help design sound experiments in psychology. It is: "If the number of experimental treatments is a low odd prime number, then the experimental design is unbalanced and partially confounded" Wike's law of low odd primes is a...
, a principle of design of experimentsDesign of experimentsIn general usage, design of experiments or experimental design is the design of any information-gathering exercises where variation is present, whether under the full control of the experimenter or not. However, in statistics, these terms are usually used for controlled experiments...
, was stated by Sir Ronald A. FisherRonald FisherSir Ronald Aylmer Fisher FRS was an English statistician, evolutionary biologist, eugenicist and geneticist. Among other things, Fisher is well known for his contributions to statistics by creating Fisher's exact test and Fisher's equation...
in 1935 but named by Edwin Wike in 1973.
YZ
- Yagi-Uda antenna, a successful and popular beam antenna, whose primary inventor was Shintaro UdaShintaro UdaJapanese inventor. Assistant of professor Hidetsugu Yagi at Tohoku University, where they invented the Yagi-Uda antenna in 1926. In February 1926, Yagi and Uda published their first report on the wave projector antenna in a Japanese publication. Yagi applied for patents on the new antenna both in...
, but which was popularized by, and formerly popularly named for, his collaborator Hidetsugu YagiHidetsugu YagiHidetsugu Yagi was a Japanese electrical engineer. When working at Tohoku University, he wrote several important articles that introduced a new antenna design by his colleague Shintaro Uda to the English-speaking world.The Yagi antenna, patented in 1926, allows directional communication using...
.
Similar cases
- Bailey–Borwein–Plouffe formulaBailey–Borwein–Plouffe formulaThe Bailey–Borwein–Plouffe formula provides a spigot algorithm for the computation of the nth binary digit of π. This summation formula was discovered in 1995 by Simon Plouffe. The formula is named after the authors of the paper in which the formula was published, David H. Bailey, Peter Borwein,...
was discovered by Simon PlouffeSimon PlouffeSimon Plouffe is a Quebec mathematician born on June 11, 1956 in Saint-Jovite, Quebec. He discovered the formula for the BBP algorithm which permits the computation of the nth binary digit of π, in 1995...
, who has since expressed regret at having to share credit for his discovery.
See also
- List of misnamed theorems
- List of multiple discoveries
- List of scientific priority disputes