FAQ - MacTutor History of Mathematics

<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="utf-8" /> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, shrink-to-fit=no" /> <link rel="icon" href="../../static/img/favicon.gif" /> <title> FAQ - MacTutor History of Mathematics </title>  <link rel="stylesheet" href="../../static/css/bootstrap.min.css?h=8de02d92" />  <link rel="stylesheet" href="../../static/css/lato.css?h=cc1e7b16" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../../static/css/reset.css?h=d363f773" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../../static/css/custom.css?h=af6c60f9" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../../static/css/site.css?h=009079dc" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../../static/css/content.css?h=469c9b2b" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../../static/katex/katex.min.css?h=607b2673" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../../static/css/tooltip.css?h=8bb1ae34" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/font-awesome/4.7.0/css/font-awesome.min.css" />  <link id="new-theme-style" rel="stylesheet" />  <noscript> <style> .nonoscript { display: none; } </style> </noscript>  <meta property="og:title" content="FAQ" /> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Maths History" /> <meta property="og:locale" content="en_GB" /> <meta property="og:url" content="https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Miscellaneous/faq/" />  <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary" /> <meta name="twitter:site" content="Maths History" /> <meta name="twitter:title" content="FAQ" /> </head> <body> <div class="container">   <header class="site-header py-3 position-relative">  <a class="skip-link" href="#main">Skip to content</a> <div class="row flex-nowrap justify-content-between align-items-center"> <div class="col pt-1"> <a class="site-header-name text-decoration-none" href="../../" > <h1 class="site-header-name"> <img height="48" src="../../static/img/logo.png" alt="MacTutor logo" /> MacTutor </h1> </a> </div> </div>  </header>   <div class="container nav-bar" role="navigation"> <div class="row nav"> <a class="col-md-auto p-2" href="../../">Home</a> <a class="col-md-auto p-2" href="../../Biographies/">Biographies</a> <a class="col-md-auto p-2" href="../../HistTopics/">History Topics</a> <a class="col-md-auto p-2" href="../../Map/">Map</a> <a class="col-md-auto p-2" href="../../Curves/">Curves</a> <a class="col-md-auto p-2" href="../../Search/">Search</a> </div> </div>   <main id="main"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-md-12"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-md-12"> <h1>FAQ</h1> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-md-12"><span class="markup"><hr style="border:1px solid;"/> <h3>We would like to use some of your pictures in a book, a Web-site, ...</h3> <br/> We do not own the copyright to most of the images used on this website and we don't mind what you do with them. <br/> <br/> We believe that most of the images are in the public domain and that provided you use them on a website you are unlikely to encounter any difficulty. <br/> <br/> However, if you wish to use them in any other way -- in "paper" publishing or on a CD for example -- we cannot guarantee that there may not be outstanding copyright problems. <br/> <br/> A <a href="../copyright/">statement to this effect</a> is linked to all the pages which show the pictures. <br/> <br/> <hr style="border:1px solid;"/> <h3>We would like a copy of one of your pictures at a higher resolution</h3> <br/> We have acquired the pictures on our site from a variety of sources: books, journals, web-sites, walls of various Maths buildings around the world, ... and I am afraid that we have not kept a record of where we got them and have not kept any higher resolution copies than the ones we show on our pages. <br/> <br/> These are <span class="non-italic">(</span>mostly<span class="non-italic">)</span> <span class="non-italic">326</span> pixels high <span class="non-italic">(</span>for slightly complicated historical reasons<span class="non-italic">)</span> and so when we see such odd-sized pictures elsewhere we know where they come from! <br/> <br/> If you do need better pictures the <a href="http://www.sil.si.edu/digitalcollections/hst/scientific-identity/explore.htm">Smithsonian</a> is a pretty good source. They have many pictures of scientists at a very high resolution and will let you use them <a href="http://www.sil.si.edu/permissions/">at a price</a>. <br/> <br/> If you don't find what you want there, you could always try <a href="../../Miller/stamps/">postage stamps</a>. <br/> <br/> <hr style="border:1px solid;"/> <h3>We would like to use some of your material in hand-outs, theses, posters, web-sites, ...</h3> <br/> We are very happy for you to use anything we have put together provided that you keep our names as authors on the bottom and if it is to be used on the Web include a link back to us. <br/> <br/> <hr style="border:1px solid;"/> <h3>How can you say Archimedes was not Greek, Lagrange was not French, Bolyai was not Hungarian, Hilbert was not German, ... ?</h3> <br/> When we include mathematicians in lists of those born in a given country we are using the present-day geopolitical boundaries and since Western Europe in particular has undergone sweeping changes in the last <span class="non-italic">200</span> years these may no longer be quite what you expect. <br/> <br/> So Archimedes and Lagrange were born in present-day Italy, Bolyai in Romania, Hilbert in Russia, etc. <br/> <br/> If you go to the individual biographies you will usually find some discussion of this. So for example, J谩nos Bolyai's birthplace is given as "Kolozsv谩r, Hungary <span class="non-italic">(</span>now Cluj, Romania<span class="non-italic">)</span>" and his deathplace as "Marosv谩s谩rhely, Hungary <span class="non-italic">(</span>now Tirgu-Mures, Romania<span class="non-italic">)</span>". <br/> <br/> <hr style="border:1px solid;"/> <h3>We would like to cite some of your material</h3> <br/> You can cite <span class="non-italic">(</span>for example<span class="non-italic">)</span> the biography of Stefan Banach as: <br/> <br/> J J O'Connor and E F Robertson, Stefan Banach, <em>MacTutor History of Mathematics</em>, <span class="non-italic">(</span>University of St Andrews, Scotland, February <span class="non-italic">2000)</span> <br/> http://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Banach <br/> <br/> <span class="non-italic">(</span>The authors and the date are at the bottom of each article<span class="non-italic">)</span> <br/> <br/> <hr style="border:1px solid;"/> <h3>Who are the mathematicians on the "Background picture" to the Main index page?</h3> <br/> You can see these at <a href="../bg_picture/">THIS LINK</a>. <br/> <br/> How many did you recognise? <br/> <br/> Incidentally, you can see ALL the portraits <span class="non-italic">(</span>arranged chronologically<span class="non-italic">)</span> at <a href="../../OtherIndexes/pictures/">THIS LINK</a>.</span></div> </div> </div>   </div>  </main>  <footer class="site-footer mt-3 pb-3 pt-3 pt-md-0"> <div class="row"> <div class="cr-footer col-md-4"> DJF/JOC/EFR<br /> <a href="../copyright/" >Copyright information</a ><br /> <a href="../accessibility/" >Accessibility statement</a > </div> <div class="links-footer col-md-6"> <a href="https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/mathematics-statistics/" target="_blank" >School of Mathematics and Statistics</a > <br /> <a href="http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/" target="_blank" >University of St Andrews, Scotland</a > </div> <div class="col-md-2"> <img src="../../static/img/st-andrews-logo.png?h=e46f195e" alt="University of St. Andrews logo" /> </div> </div> <hr /> <div class="row"> <div class="col-md-12"> If you have comments, or spot errors, we are always pleased to <a href="../contact_us/">hear from you</a>. </div> </div> </footer>  </div> <script src="../../static/js/popper.min.js?h=313789ca"></script> <script src="../../static/js/tippy-bundle.iife.min.js?h=99c14441"></script> <script src="../../static/js/site-popups.js?h=7ad47578"></script> <script src="../../static/js/foldup.js?h=0b5aeaab"></script> <script src="../../static/js/extras-popup.js?h=d0cee101"></script> <script src="../../static/js/imageMapResizer.min.js?h=319b7d80"></script> <script> imageMapResize(); // https://blog.shhdharmen.me/toggle-light-and-dark-themes-in-bootstrap const LOCAL_STORAGE_KEY = 'toggle-bootstrap-theme'; const LOCAL_META_DATA = JSON.parse( localStorage.getItem(LOCAL_STORAGE_KEY) ); const DARK_THEME_PATH = 'https://bootswatch.com/5/flatly/bootstrap.min.css'; const DARK_STYLE_LINK = document.getElementById('new-theme-style'); let isDark = LOCAL_META_DATA && LOCAL_META_DATA.isDark; // check if user has already selected dark theme earlier if (isDark) { enableDarkTheme(); } else { disableDarkTheme(); } /** * Apart from toggling themes, this will also store user's theme preference in local storage. * So when user visits next time, we can load the same theme. * */ function toggleTheme() { isDark = !isDark; if (isDark) { enableDarkTheme(); } else { disableDarkTheme(); } const META = { isDark }; localStorage.setItem(LOCAL_STORAGE_KEY, JSON.stringify(META)); } function enableDarkTheme() { DARK_STYLE_LINK.setAttribute('href', DARK_THEME_PATH); } function disableDarkTheme() { DARK_STYLE_LINK.setAttribute('href', ''); } </script> </body> </html>

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FAQ - MacTutor History of Mathematics