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Smartest people to have ever lived? (Top 10 list)

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by LosPollosHermanos, Apr 10, 2011.

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smartest people?

  1. newton

    15 vote(s)
    22.7%
  2. einstein

    12 vote(s)
    18.2%
  3. archimedes

    6 vote(s)
    9.1%
  4. da vinci

    17 vote(s)
    25.8%
  5. galileo

    5 vote(s)
    7.6%
  6. copernicus

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  7. avagadro

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  8. other (biologist)

    2 vote(s)
    3.0%
  9. other (physicist)

    1 vote(s)
    1.5%
  10. other (person)

    8 vote(s)
    12.1%
  1. the futants

    the futants Contributing Member

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    If Tesla's visions had modern-day funding channels and hadn't been hindered by Edison...dude probably would have invented a freakin' time machine. Seriously. His ideas alone (wireless electricity?) were impressive.
    Hard to separate him on that level from Da Vinci though...

    Tough/impossible question to answer...
     
  2. lpbman

    lpbman Member

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    Aristotle











    Plato/Socrates
    Newton


    Maxwell
    Einstein
    Poincaré
    Gauss
    Mach
     
  3. Malcolm

    Malcolm Member

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    John Dalton came up with the laws of masses of atoms which are still relevant today.
     
  4. Steve_Francis_rules

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    What makes you think Hawking is any smarter than any of the other living Physics Nobel Prize winners? He certainly hasn't contributed more to physics than any other person alive today.
     
  5. Dr of Dunk

    Dr of Dunk Clutch Crew

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    I think pretty much how you rank anyone you've never met, is dead, and may be decades/hundreds of years long gone is going to be subjective. How do you objectively do this?

    For example, I thought Isaac Asimov was brilliant. Then I've read that he's stated he'd only met 2 people who were smarter than he : Carl Sagan and Marvin Minsky. So now how do I rate these people with, say, an Ayn Rand? How do I rank, Jacob Barnett, the guy who has an IQ of 170, is working on astrophysics, advanced college calculus and physics, and expanding on Einstein's works, at the ripe old age of 12? Then there are mathematical geniuses like Ramanujan who you may never have heard of and who never really got much, if any, formal training, grew up in a dirt poor village, but was given the gift of math and many rank his genius with Newton, Euler, etc.

    Trying to rank these people is futile.
     
    1 person likes this.
  6. Dr of Dunk

    Dr of Dunk Clutch Crew

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    Oh, hey, I got one. That caveman that discovered fire. I win.
     
  7. geeimsobored

    geeimsobored Contributing Member

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    The more I read about Tesla, the more I am amazed. The guy's vision and work is simply incredible. And it makes me so sad when I read on about him.

    On the other hand, Thomas Edison is garbage. The guy hindered science as much as he helped it.
     
  8. bobrek

    bobrek Politics belong in the D & D

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  9. Air Langhi

    Air Langhi Contributing Member

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    You have to give credit to Edison he died very rich and Tesla very poor. Edison was smart in that he knew how to maximize the value of his inventions. I think Edison was pretty much self taught whereas Tesla had some college education. Its not like tesla "invented" EM many of these equations were developed my maxwell and other guys in the 1800s.
    He gave away his billions by signing away key patents to Westinghouse.

    However he was prolific in how to come up with useful stuff for all those theories.

    I will have to give the title to Carl Friedrich Gauss. Probably came up with more math then anyone.
     
  10. codell

    codell Contributing Member

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    another vote here for Tesla

    Dude had a hand in inventing all sorts of things

    ac power
    radio
    remote control
    spark plug

    I recall a story that came out recently that said Tesla's theory of wireless electricity distribution may be a reality in the near future.
     
  11. Behad

    Behad Contributing Member

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  12. DonnyMost

    DonnyMost not wrong
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    Without a doubt, Sir Isaac Newton.

    When you judge them relative to their time period and their peers, it's not even close.

    Dude basically invented, or laid the critical groundwork for, physics and astrophysics... he freaking invented calculus in two weeks... on a dare.
     
    #32 DonnyMost, Apr 10, 2011
    Last edited: Apr 10, 2011
    1 person likes this.
  13. Dr of Dunk

    Dr of Dunk Clutch Crew

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  14. bobrek

    bobrek Politics belong in the D & D

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    Not only that, we are a two iPad family. You have now sunk even lower.
     
  15. VanityHalfBlack

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  16. Dr of Dunk

    Dr of Dunk Clutch Crew

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    I don't know if you've seen this before, but the TED conference from a couple of years ago gave us something like this on a small scale. WiTricity (with a demo near the end) :

    <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/y1GqNN2Xe7g" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
     
  17. Dr of Dunk

    Dr of Dunk Clutch Crew

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    lol. :)
     
  18. University Blue

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    Neat, can you do one for Turing?
     
  19. tmoney1101

    tmoney1101 Contributing Member

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    No glen beck? Poll is clearly biased.
     
  20. Air Langhi

    Air Langhi Contributing Member

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    Wireless electricity is inefficient. Would you want to run trains on roads? or cars on grass? You can do it,but would you really want to?

    There is are certain chemical properties that make metals good conductors.
     

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