History's Greatest Genius

Discussion in 'History & Past Politicians' started by Anansi the Spider, Aug 24, 2011.

  1. Anansi the Spider

    Anansi the Spider Well-Known Member

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    Who was history’s greatest genius?

    DaVinci? Mill? Curie? Goethe? Leibniz or someone else from the Century of Genius, the 17th century?

    I vote for Blaise Pascal.

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    Who else made so many contributions in both science and the humanities, knowledge both theoretical and practical?

    *He was a child prodigy.

    *Physicist & inventor – He made major contributions in hydraulics. He invented the hydraulic press and the syringe.

    *He also invented the calculator.

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    *Important mathematician - Pascal made significant contributions to probability theory.

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    *Philosopher & prose stylist – Pensées has been acclaimed a masterpiece.

    Who do you choose?
     
  2. Herkdriver

    Herkdriver New Member

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    I think Pascal is a good choice for sure, but my vote goes to Sir Isaac Newton.
     
  3. Viv

    Viv Banned by Request

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  4. Anansi the Spider

    Anansi the Spider Well-Known Member

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    quote: The young Pascal showed an amazing aptitude for mathematics and science.

    Particularly of interest to Pascal was a work of Desargues on conic sections. Following Desargues' thinking, the sixteen-year-old Pascal produced, as a means of proof, a short treatise on what was called the "Mystic Hexagram", Essai pour les coniques ("Essay on Conics") and sent it—his first serious work of mathematics—to Père Mersenne in Paris; it is known still today as Pascal's theorem. It states that if a hexagon is inscribed in a circle (or conic) then the three intersection points of opposite sides lie on a line (called the Pascal line).

    Pascal's work was so precocious that Descartes was convinced that Pascal's father had written it. When assured by Mersenne that it was, indeed, the product of the son not the father, Descartes dismissed it with a sniff: "I do not find it strange that he has offered demonstrations about conics more appropriate than those of the ancients," adding, "but other matters related to this subject can be proposed that would scarcely occur to a sixteen-year-old child."

    quote: In 1642, in an effort to ease his father's endless, exhausting calculations, and recalculations, of taxes owed and paid, Pascal, not yet nineteen, constructed a mechanical calculator capable of addition and subtraction, called Pascal's calculator or the Pascaline. The Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris and the Zwinger museum in Dresden, Germany, exhibit two of his original mechanical calculators. Though these machines are early forerunners to computer engineering, the calculator failed to be a great commercial success. Because it was extraordinarily expensive the Pascaline became little more than a toy, and status symbol, for the very rich both in France and throughout Europe. However, Pascal continued to make improvements to his design through the next decade and built twenty machines in total.

    LINK
     
  5. Panzerkampfwagen

    Panzerkampfwagen New Member

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    Yeah, but the guy wrote more books on magic, which he believed in, than he did on science. Does that cancel each other out somewhat?
     
  6. Anansi the Spider

    Anansi the Spider Well-Known Member

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    Newton is a good choice, his ideas changed the world.

    John Napier may have been clever, but the evidence for those "secret inventions" seems kind of cloudy.
     
  7. Panzerkampfwagen

    Panzerkampfwagen New Member

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    The problem is that the caveman who invented the hand axe may have been much smarter than anyone today or anyone we know by name but he didn't have much prior knowledge to work with.
     
  8. George Purvis

    George Purvis New Member

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    Lets not forget fire, the wheel or toilet paper!!!

    GP
     
  9. wyly

    wyly Well-Known Member

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    ya it's really impossible to say, change the op question to who is the most signifcant...I'd go with the man or woman who figured out how to start a fire...from that point on we put distance between ourselves and all other lifeforms...
     
  10. Trinnity

    Trinnity Banned

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    From Viv's link:
    Very interesting, Viv. Thanks - I would not have known about this brilliant man, o/w.
     
  11. George Purvis

    George Purvis New Member

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    And then there is Rubik's Cube------

    GP
     
  12. wyly

    wyly Well-Known Member

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    i was more interested in how the (*)(*)(*)(*) thing worked than solving the puzzle...
     
  13. George Purvis

    George Purvis New Member

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    LOL LOL LOL and so was I

    GP
     
  14. Iron River

    Iron River Well-Known Member

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    Da Vinci for sure.
     
  15. wyly

    wyly Well-Known Member

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    my friends could be divided into three types...those that did not care at all...the majority that played with it for hours...and 3 of us who took it apart to see how it worked then tossed it aside...
     
  16. George Purvis

    George Purvis New Member

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  17. wyly

    wyly Well-Known Member

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  18. George Purvis

    George Purvis New Member

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  19. wyly

    wyly Well-Known Member

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    not that I recall but that was 30 yrs ago
     
  20. Bluespade

    Bluespade Banned

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    Archimedes, comes to mind.
     
  21. George Purvis

    George Purvis New Member

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  22. lizarddust

    lizarddust Well-Known Member

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    Fire was not invented but put to good use.

    One person who's not mentioned is Gutenburg. The printing press revolutionised literacy by allowing books and other printed material to be available to the common person.
     
  23. wyly

    wyly Well-Known Member

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    starting and controlling fire was an invention...without fire we're just animals...without fire hominids never amount to anything...even the simplest of inventions can be the result of genius...how many people can honestly say had they been alive in the prehistoric world of homo erectus would come up with the idea of starting a fire by rubbing two sticks together...


    significant in our development, but without fire we never get even that far...fire put us on the road to where we are now, food preservation, protection, warmth...
     
  24. tomfoo13ry

    tomfoo13ry Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Toss up between Newton and Leibniz.
     
  25. Anansi the Spider

    Anansi the Spider Well-Known Member

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    Some more possibilities: Zhuge Liang, Imhotep, Avicenna
     

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