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The writings of Archimedes, Euclid, Aristotle, and Plato around 200 BCE: Link text
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Cicero wrote the earliest account of Pythagoras sacrificing an ox because he uncovered something in geometry. In his writings, he states that he does not believe the story.
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Diogenes wrote that Pythagoras sacrificed 100 oxen upon finding the inscription of the right-angle theorem. However, he does not speak of the origin of the inscription or even what it entailed.
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Iamblichus wrote about Pythagoras, but the majority of his writings were extremely exaggerated and attributed him to things that are known now to have been discovered after his death.
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Proclus wrote about Pythagoras, making the claim that Pythagoras often spoke of the theorem for which he is named.
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Galileo observed the relationship between distance travelled and time of a falling object. Read more here: Link text
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1660s to 1690s: Newton, Leibniz, L’Hospital all believed different things about infinitesimals, ranging from them not existing, to them not being numbers, to them existing without being invented. (Pictured: Newton and Leibniz)
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Euler argues that 0.999…=1 by substituting numbers into the equation 10s=a.aaaaaa.
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Darwin studied Paley’s Natural Theology, noting the way the design of animals’ features suits their functions.
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Darwin’s voyage brings him to the Galapagos Islands via the HMS Beagle. Read more here: Link text
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Darwin makes the comment about the various modifications of the Galapagos finches, eight years after becoming convinced that evolution exists.
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Origin of Species is published, leaving out any reference to the Galapagos finches due to Darwin’s lacking observations of them.
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Weierstrass and Cantor were two mathematicians that did not believe in the existence of infinitesimals, which led to their banishment from mathematics for the first half of the 20th century.
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Special relativity is postulated in Einstein’s paper during this year.
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Planck discusses the principle of relativity, which states that physics equations must be the same regardless of the frame of reference. This becomes the basis for the “theory of relativity”.
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General relativity is published. Einstein worked on the theory for almost ten years, along with contributions from other physicists right before publishing.
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Einstein receives the Nobel Prize for his contributions to relativity.
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The Ives-Stilwell experiment tested Einstein’s 1905 predictions for special relativity. Read more here: Link text
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Robinson argued the existence of infinitesimals and their relevance in calculus with the idea that an infinitely large number could be placed as the denominator in a fraction, making an infinitely small number that is still greater than zero.
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Zoo specialists could not identify the origins of the Galapagos turtles by their shells as the locals had claimed when Darwin visited in the 1830s. This points to the idea that Darwin did not use the turtles as evidence for evolution.
