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Igor Markov

Professor of Electrical Engr. and Computer Science (CSE Division), IEEE Fellow

Member of the Michigan Inst. for Computational Discovery & Engineering

Frequently Asked Questions about our recent Nature article on limits to computation

See our projects in Hardware security (1, 2), The 2012 ACM Computing Classification System
UMich Physical Design Tools (including Capo), Parquet, FLOORIST, BloBB, CompaSS, QuIDD Pro
FGR, SAUCY, Partitioning and Wirelength-driven Placement, MARCO/GSRC Bookshelf

A quote from Chris Fuchs's paper "Quantum Mechanics as Quantum Information, Mostly"

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One could say that most of the empirical predictions of special relativity were in place well before Einstein came onto the scene. What was being begged for in the years between 1895 and 1905 was an understanding of the origin of that abstract, mathematical structure --- some simple, crisp physical statements with respect to which the necessity of the mathematics would be indisputable. Einstein supplied that and became one of the greatest physicists of all time. He reduced the mysterious structure of the Lorentz transformations to two simple statements expressible in common language:
  1. The speed of light in empty space is independent of the speed of its source.
  2. Physics should appear the same in all inertial reference frames.
The deep significance of this should stand up and speak overpoweringly to anyone who admires these principles.

Karl Pearson, "Historical note on the origin of the normal curve of errors", Biometrika 16: 402-404 [p. 403]:

The fact that Stirling showed that De Moivre's arithmetical constant was root-2pi does not entitle him to claim the theorem.

From the Wikipedia entry for Thales

In addition to two theorems known as Thales' theorems, Eudemus attributed to Thales the discovery that a circle is bisected by its diameter, that the base angles of an isosceles triangle are equal and that vertical angles are equal. It would be hard to imagine civilization without these theorems.

It is possible, of course, to question whether Thales really did discover these principles. On the other hand, it is not possible to answer such doubts definitively. The sources are all that we have, even though they sometimes contradict each other. (The most we can say is that Thales knew these principles.)

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