I will post a few riddles/stories for you to solve who I might be talking about. Good luck!


He was sixty-nine years old, and his hair and beard were as white as hoar frost. His eyes, which had looked deep into the heavens, and had seen further than any human being before him, were now dimmed by age. His reputation as one of the great scientists of his time had made kings, queens, princes and dukes vie for his services. Now he knelt before the dreaded tribunal of the Inquisition, compelled to publicly confess an error that was no error. His lips moved, uttering the words that were put in them, and he rose.

Nevertheless, some say, that as he stood, he muttered inaudibly, "E pur si move" (The earth does move.) Who was this man, one of the most famous men of the 17th century, a man whose name is still uttered with awe even today?

Who am I talking about?

Galileo.

And "e pur si move" actually means..."And yet it moves."

Yep--but the mathematicians have never proven it. Funny how that is ?

Very good and thank you for the correction. I am a bit rusty in my Latin

Interesting fact about Galileo

Galileo was a noncomformist in many ways. For example, when at the Universiy of Pisa, he refused to wear the academic robes worn by his colleagues, saying that they restricted his movements un-necessarily. For this seemingly harmless infringement, he was forced to pay many fines out of his meager salary, and was in the end dissmissed from the faculty at Pisa.

Okay the next one is up! Good luck!

King Ptolemy I was, to put not too fine a point on it, a bit put out. When he was having difficulty studying "Geometry from the Elements", and had requested its author for some easier way for a monarch to learn the subject, he received the answer, "Sire, there is no royal road to Geometry."

Who was the scholar who delivered this royal rebuff, who has been called by ancient writers of history, "a gentle and kindly old man"?

And it means, actually, "appears (as) if moving."

E pur means ap-pear. At least by phonics, even if not by semantic etimology.

We quaff at the Inquisition, but this was a major blunder that they made, after which in quick demotions of its appointed executives, and then firing all the exucutioners and their assistants, the entire organization was soon dissolved (but not dismantled) after the Galileo case. Though, funny as it sounds, the Vatican still has people on payroll who fulfil various funcions in the Inquisition. This is so because the Vatican is run on beaurocracy, and one of its tenets or credos is that institutions cannot be abolished.

This, my friends, is actually a fact, if only a mistaken or untrue one.

My vote goes to Dr. Prof. Herbert von Disfigured. He was tried and found true as a heretic. He was burnt at he stake in 868 AD. and his ashes are kept in the Vatican spittle-urns.

The correct answer is Euclid.

On one occasion, a pupil of Euclid's complained because he saw no practical knowledge in having to know geometry. Euclid turned to one of his servants, and replied: "Give this pupil a piece of money, for he must have profit from what he learns." In his book, the Elements, which in reality contains 13 books, he set forth the geometry that is still taught to children all over the world, setting forth definitions and axioms that remain unchallenged even today.

And here is the next one:


The room was unbearably hot, and eleven upstanding Dutch citizens were wondering why they had allowed themselves to be coaxed into coming there. Two of the men were priests, one a notary public, and the rest were burghers of the town of Delft, who frequented the store of the owner of the room. One by one, they stepped near a glass window, held up a lens and stared at the world of the 'little beasties' that wriggled beneath the convex glass all around them.

They were looking at a sight which only one man in the world had seen before. When they had seen their fill, they attached their signatures to an affidavit that the owner of the shop had thoughtfully drawn up. The world was about to be informed of a discovery that would turn the world of science on its head, the microscope.

Who was the Scientist who was responsible for this earth-shattering discovery, that there exist beings in this world that we cannot see with the naked eye, but that still affect every facet of our lives?

I don't know from where you copy-and-paste these quibs, but to challenge a definition, and especially an axiom would be really, but really stupid, if the challenge consists of "this is not really true".

Loewenhook?

If not, then Xaveria Hollander.

What am I saying. A guy just yesterday challenged the axioms of Euclid, and created the non-Euclemedean Geometry. That man's name is Farkas Bolyai, and he used to be a proud countriman of mine, until sadly he died in the 1800s sometime and until I, fortunately, sailed the deep blue see to Canada in 1972.

The two priests had receding hairline.

The notary public had retriculated hernia from sitting too much.

The burghers each were infected with salmonella, because they were underdone and sadly bbq sauce had not been invented yet.

The other burghers kept walking up and down the burgh, and said to each other, "we can see microscopic creatures, but we still haven't invented the bbq sauce."

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENT: THIS SITE IS GETTING TO ME. I CAUGHT MYSELF JUST NOW, FOR THE THIRD TIME IN A MONTH, THAT I'M PLURALIZING SIMPLE NOUNS USING THE GROCER'S COMMA. THUS I TYPED BURGHER'S INSTEAD OF BURGHERS.

THIS IS BAD. I'LL HAVE TO TALK TO MY GRAMMAR COUNSELLOR WHAT TO DO ABOUT STOPPING FURTHER DAMAGE TO MY ENGLISH BY THE GRAMMARIAN INFECTION OF THE BAD GRAMMAR AND SPELLING VIRUS (B1G1JESUSCHRIST)

The correct answer is Anton van Leeuwenhoek. That is correct!

This eye-witness testimony was attached to a letter that Leeuwenhoek sent to London's Royal Society. Although the heading of the letter which read, "A Specimen of some Observations made by a Microscope Contrived by Mr. Leeuwenhoek, concerning Mould upon the skin, flesh etc", did reflect the Dutchman's lack of formal education, it showed the more perceptive members of the Royal Society the thoroughness of Leeuwenhoek's work. Leeuwenhoek accumulated more 'firsts' than any other man in History, his unbridled curiosity extended even upto the nature of the disease that would ultimately lead to his death. Even at the age of ninety, he was still active enough to send two letters to the Royal Society about the illness that eventually lead to his death, describing it as a disorder of the diaphragm.

And on to the next one...


The year was 1696. He had just recovered from a prolonged illness of the nervous system and had been given a lucrative job at the London Mint. There was widespread anxiety among the scientific community as to whether he, the most famous scientist in the world, still retained his edge. John Bernoulli, famous for his work in integral and exponential calculus, sent a letter to all leading mathematicians propounding a problem. He challenged the world's mathematicians to solve this problem within six months. He received a reply within a week. When he read it, he recognised the touch of the master, and remarked, "Tanquam ex ungue leonem". (It is the touch of the lion's paw.) Thus was the scientific world informed that the 'master' had not yet yielded his pre-eminence.

Who was the 'master'?

Da masta 'e been da fizzy cyst, dat mofo 'oo invented gravity, an a apple fall on 'ees 'ead, dat badazz masta' "Neustatt or "New Town".

Dat been eezee.

The answer is Sir Isaac Newton.

"Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in the night;
God said, 'Let Newton be!' and all was light."

- Alexander Pope

The next one is:

The rear door of the fashionable London townhouse opened slowly. A shadowy figure, dressed in clothing which had gone out of style some twenty years ago, appeared in the doorway. He glanced furtively up and down the street and then, when he was sure that the neighbourhood was deserted, slipped into the blackness of the evening. Suddenly a coach clattered around the corner, and its two female occupants, catching sight of the muffled figure, called out to him, "Good evening, Sir."
He looked up for a moment, terrified. Then, burying his face in his great coat, he sprinted out into the night, to the mortification of the ladies. Thief? No. Spy? No. Murderer? Certainly Not! Abnormal Genius out for an evening stroll? Of course!

Who was he?

The Elephant man. I don't know his first name.

The correct answer is Henry Cavendish.

Henry Cavendish was without doubt, one of the most eccentric of all scientists. Despite being one of the richest scientists ever, he was also one of the most reticent. As he grew older, and more famous, London saw less and less of this great scientist. He had a back staircase built in his house so that he could come and go without being seen by the maids. Every morning the servants would find a slip of paper requesting certain meals for the day. Once the food was prepared, they would bring it to the dining room and then leave before Cavendish tiptoed into the room.

He was worth millions of pounds, and yet, he had absolutely no interest in money, and his enormous fortune remained untouched throughout his life. After his life, his fortune was used to further our knowledge of the unknown. It is certain that he would have approved.