Comments on: 90% of those who ever lived, alive today…?

By: Murray

Murray — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 01:31:32 +0000

Anyone up for Peter’s challenge…?

Actually, we are all born “scientists”, in that we need to explore our world, make hypotheses from our observations, test those hypotheses, and finally come up with a theory that we believe we can “prove”.

Sadly, it’s the school system that often removes that curiosity from us.

By: Peter M DeVita

Peter M DeVita — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 20:57:21 +0000

Hi,
Not so sure Huw’s logic is quite right. It is the % of scientists whose growth we need to know not the total population. If there where 1 scientist alive in 1900 and we have 9 in 2000, we’d have your 90%. To compute how many of the scientists that are alive today as a % of all time, we need the sum of all time. A close approximation could be all those scientists alive in 1900. Do you know how mnny that is? Add to those alive now and then take %. It is not exact but would be close enough to show the growth effect.

Of course there is the issue of defining who is a scientist. As long as you use the same defn for 1900 and 2000 it will be close enough. Or, try a couple of definitions to see what sensitivity there is.

If you do this I would be interested in your numbers.
thanks,

By: zayx

zayx — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:07:08 +0000

yes it is quite frightening I have only just seen a program on tv about poulation increases and it really makes one think.That is the reason how I discovered this website.

By: Beta

Beta — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:00:43 +0000

I alway love algebra,but now its getting harder,the higher education I am working on, but I am glad I am not missing out,great website and helpful informations.