Smartest man (and woman) in your opinion.

[xelasnave]

Well by starting this thread I realise it is always just about men... I need to think about smartest lady..

OK let's just think upon all the great folk through out history who stand out for their brilliance and or contribution to humanity...

Do you have your selection and can I ask that you share your selection and perhaps why they impress you over the many others.

Alex

[Hans Tucker]

Smartest? Very subjective just like the most beautiful. What are the criteria .. academically smart? street smart?

[Spidy]

Interesting question.


And I'm sure you'll get a lot of interesting responses.



I remember reading somewhere that Steven Hawking will be remembered as one of the smartest men of all time, because of the fact that he was in the wheelchair and that distinct "voice". Yet his contemporaries didn't hold him in the same regard.


Also, Einstein's first wife did A LOT of the calculations and a lot of work on his first thesis, but did not get any recognition at all.

Sorry, I know it doesn't answer your question, but I bring this up as a point that who we believe to be the smartest and biggest contributors aren't necessarily the same people that history says are.

[The Mekon]

John von Neumann. Others of his time, nobel prize winners etc, all stood in awe of him.

[raymo]

As far as contributors go, it is hard to go past Howard Florey. He and his
team have saved countless millions of lives.
raymo

[xelasnave]

Street smart of course.
Alex

[drylander]

That would be me then. I keep away from streets and only use roads,avenues and tracks. Streets cause problems even with GPS.
Pete

[xelasnave]

My choice for the smartest man, and still thinking about which lady I will choose, "who stand out for their brilliance and or contribution to humanity" I am inclined to go for Nikola Tesla as he not only demonstrated briliance beyond anyone I can think of but his contribution to humanity is way past any one else in my view. Can you imagine a world without his inventions...It is unfortunate he bagged Einstein and drew such a negative backlash that seems to continue even today..so many folk are happy to point out "flaws" but neglect to acknowledge his wonderful inventions.
It was a hard decision as I am inclined to think of Sir Issac Newton as he could be considered to stand above everyone on the brilliance scale but I felt my love of Newtonian Telescopes may have caused me to be somewhat biased.
But more people benefit from the electric motor, just one of Nikola Tesla's brilliant inventions and given the necessity to abandon the internal combustion engine one could argue that he has saved the planet...than benefit from the Newtonian Telescope.

From Wiki , and I recommend that if you are vague as to Nikola Tesla's work go there for a brief look at all he has done) but here are headings to give you an idea of the many things we can thank him for.

Significant designs

AC motor
Carbon button lamp
Death ray
Induction motor
Plasma globe
Plasma lamp
Polyphase system
Radio control
Resonant inductive coupling
Rotating magnetic field
Teleforce
Telegeodynamics
Teleoperation
Tesla coil
Tesla Experimental Station
Tesla's oscillator
Tesla turbine
Tesla valve
Torpedo [1]
Vacuum variable capacitor
Violet ray
VTOL
Wardenclyffe Tower
Wireless power transfer
World Wireless System

AND Sir Issac Newton again sheer brilliance Known for,.....


Newtonian mechanics
Universal gravitation
Calculus
Newton's laws of motion
Optics
Binomial series
Principia
Newton's method
Newton's Law of Cooling
Newton's identities
Newton's metal
Newton line
Newton-Gauss line
Newtonian fluid
Newton's rings

Alex

[Hans Tucker]

Newton ... Calculus ... that is open for debate. :D

[sn1987a]

Elon Musk and he's not finished yet :P

[xelasnave]

Yes I have read all about that but forgotten everything...
What can you tell us...say take the side that says he didn't and see where that takes us... OR offer a rebuttal ....its raining here how about your place:P?

Alex

[xelasnave]

For the lady..Mary Anning..if you want to know why you may need to google.
Alex

[Hans Tucker]

I have read 'The Calculus Wars' and I really don't feel the need to take sides. Newton had staunch supporters and a lot of unsubstantiated accusation got thrown around. Did Leibniz lose out because he didn't publish until later? It is an interesting read.

[raymo]

We have to remember that the contributors that we nominate for their
positive contributions, mostly made [unwittingly] negative contributions
as well. For example, Tesla's inventions in many and varied ways, directly
and indirectly, made life easier and longer, contributing to the population explosion we are now lumbered with. Howard Florey's negative contribution
was much more obvious and direct; all those people whose lives he saved
reproduced and will have hugely added to the population situation we now
find ourselves in. Just try to imagine the enormous number of people that
would have died without antibiotics. The world as a whole would have been
better off without antibiotics, and all the wonder drugs that we have now,
such as the Mab family of immunotherapy drugs that are working wonders with more and more varieties of cancer.
raymo

[xelasnave]

You know I read that someplace and if that is true then he is indeed a very smart man.

What I find interesting is Einstein did not believe there was such a object as a black hole and yet it was his math ( his wifes;)) that gave rise to that speculation...I still agree with him actually. I know I know the photo the photo..it is still not of the black hole but when I see a picture of the actual black hole I will accept it is real.

I do think something is outta wack with General Relativity and Newtonian gravity as well, that has us believing that dark matter exists... the reality is perhaps what we observe not what the sums demand...

Alex

[Robh]

Much of the development in the sciences is based on observation and fitting the math to the observational data. It takes a great mind to see something and develop a framework that fits the observations. It took an astute mind like Newton's to develop the equations to describe the motion of the planets. In fact he had to develop calculus to help him along.

But I'm going for Albert Einstein. He developed a theoretical framework for gravity before the observations that confirm it were made. When general relativity came out it was counter-intuitive to how we thought the universe worked. In fact, they had to devise experiments and do many further observations to see if this "crazy" theory would hold up. The bending of light by the Sun and galaxy clusters, gravitational lensing, time dilation, black holes, gravitational waves continue to confirm his theory.

Regards, Rob

[Manav]

arthur c clarke and frank herbert for their imagination

[mura_gadi]

Not a bad list... very western bias... Ie a Jesus but no Budha and next to no females.

https://www.ranker.com/list/greatest-minds-of-all-time/walter-graves

Srinivasa Ramanujan and Ada Lovelace I would be adding in though...



Steve
Ps. But time dulls all things, even brilliance.

George Stephenson change the world, but he was neither the inventor or a genius.

[Hans Tucker]

This thread has to have a mention of the Curies .. Marie (first and only woman to win the Nobel Prize twice) and Pierre.

[xelasnave]

Yes Rob so good to have your input :) thank you for contributing.

I think "they" have gravity wrong which I hint at along side my photo..my opinion only.

And as you say it really takes something to work any of this stuff out...

I have said it many many times but the fundamental problem I see is gravity is seen as a force of attraction..well perhaps not really given General Relativity treats it as not a force at all...so one cant point to what I said and say I am wrong but other than I see gravity as a force in the first place, which is the wrong bit really:D

I think as old as it is (1745) LeSages "Push Gravity" is a most logical approach as to how it works.

Think of the galactic rotation curves, intuitively please as I have zip math skills, what we observe is most consistent with the rotation being driven by an external force...anyways that is the way I see it and my only claim claim to fame is that I am rather good at working out how things work..and if you want something to disagree with take the Suns Corona.. so much hotter than anyone can explain...if we have a push gravity type environment it would mean the energy from the Sun interacts with the "particles or energy" coming from the rest of the Universe (that provides the mythical pushing force) and if so what could we expect?

Anyways I recognise this is just mere speculation and will remain so until some one can provide a model...and that is the thing to remember..we talk about models not reality...you can not tell me that say gravitational lensing could not be described by an entirely different model and you can bet that one day it will be a different model, subject to all the rules of replacement of course.

I know the experiments and I cant argue against them but when the observation ( from galactic rotation curves) required so much more matter to make the sums work I dont buy it .. I say that is not unreasonable
.for whatever reason the sums may break down here..I bet they have...

Anyways this thread is not about General Relativity or gravity so forgive me for taking the thread away from the op.

I just enjoy all of it...

Thanks again.

Alex

[JA]

Very good point Hans.

I was going to pick Marie Curie as my female nominee and in the male category Nikola Tesla and a bunch of others: Newton, Einstein, Euclid, Pythagoras, Archimedes, Leonardo da Vinci, etc... Actually looking at them all, with the exception of Leonardo they're all focused solely on scientific discovery and achievement, but scientific smarts is not the only game in town. There's arts, politics, business, music etc.....


Best
JA

[mura_gadi]

Hedy Lamarr would be a good name for an entertainer who got no cred for the smarts...

[alpal]

I'll go for Einstein but his relativity ideas were helped by Lorentz.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorentz_transformation

[RB]

And also Hedley Lamarr for outsmarting Governor William J. Le Petomane.

:lol:

[anj026]

Not many people are aware of Thomas Harriot. He is credited with observing the moon through a telescope and creating a drawing in July 1609, 4 months before Galileo. He has many other achievements in navigation and mathematics as well as astronomy. He worked on the early basis of continuous compounding. Something we take for granted these days with our super accounts. The vast majority of his work was unpublished. This may be due to the risk of persecution or unwanted attention by religious authorities and political factions.

https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Harriot/

[anj026]

Must not forget Katherine Johnson, NASA mathematician. A very smart lady.

https://www.nasa.gov/content/katherine-johnson-biography

[xelasnave]

Yes..like the man who made China ...see I cant even recall his name:D
But obviously he had a great team.

Alex

[Hans Tucker]

Da Vinci has to score high given he received no formal education and was essentially self taught having both a scientific and artistic mind. Of particular note is how he wrote his Codex Leicester.

[IanT]

Mustn’t forget Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Shakespeare, Dante, Van Gogh and loads of others whose talents were colossal and who have made more people awestruck in the face of their accomplishments than have any scientists.

[Miaplacidus]

When I was at uni I had the amazing experience of a small group meeting with Gus Nossel. We were analysing the various steps of a particular immune reaction, involving a near endless chain of stimulatory and inhibitory factors. My head was spinning, losing track of a multitude of chemical interactions, but Sir Gus was easily across every detail and could clearly visualise all these molecules and enzymes dancing about. I remember thinking at the time that I was in the presence of the smartest person that I'd ever met. 40 years on, lots of clever and amazing people since, but I'm yet to change my mind.

In terms of people we've never met, I'm a bit surprised that no one as mentioned either Richard Feynman or Claude Shannon...

[leon]

I am not that good at remembering names but i reckon the Sheila that invented the Pop Rivet gets my vote. :lol:

Leon :thumbsup:

[RB]

Her name was Ms Dyna Bond.

:thumbsup:

[Steffen]

I think it was Kepler who first (correctly) described the motion of the planets. Newton developed and formalised concepts like inertia (what Kepler initially called “laziness” but couldn’t explain from a physics point of view) and acceleration.

Regarding calculus, I think both Newton and Leibniz approached this around about the same time, Newton from a physics/mechanics perspective and Leibniz out of pure mathematical necessity.

The d/dx notation is Leibniz’, the “dot over the x” sometimes seen in physics and engineering is Newton’s.

[Steffen]

Indeed. Lise Meitner missed out when out of rampant sexism the Nobel Prize went to her assistant Otto Hahn. Despite dozens of nominations she was never awarded a Nobel Prize.

[Hans Tucker]

Unfortunately history has shown that women are the quiet achievers. Another name that springs to mind ... Caroline Herschel

[xelasnave]

It is very comforting to be reminded of the many smart humans when one is confronted, via the net, with so many idiots...
AND I am happy that sexism, although still with us sadly, is less than it would seem to be in the past.
Alex

[drylander]

Also no Australian of the year....they lose the plot once nominated.
Pete

[Startrek]

I don’t know if there is a smartest person on the planet in our history , but one smart cookie that comes to mind was Dr Charles ‘Doc’ Draper who invented internal guidance and navigation at MIT in the late 50’s.Without this incredibly clever method of air and space navigation using gyroscopes and accelerometers we would never have reached the moon let alone returned safely.

[croweater]

Hi there, Charles Darwin deserves a mention I think.
Cheers, Richard.

[multiweb]

Not yet born. The one who will find a solution to get out of the mess we're all headed for right now.

[JohnF]

Eistein was once asked what is it like to be the Smartest man alive. He replied, I don't know you will have to ask Nikola Tesla. Isaac Newton wad brilliant in many areas other tan Science, He wrote more on the Bible than on Science and he worked out any dates for Ancient events such as the 457BC decree to restore Jerusalem THE DECREE GIVEN BY KING ARTAXERXES. Prior to Newton these ancient dates had been forgotten by the world. Astronomy, ancient records of Eclipses, do prove Newton's dates were right. And he proved that the Church was wrong on the dates they gave.

[Hans Tucker]

Greta?

[multiweb]

:lol::lol::lol: Sure can't be that easy...