Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2019 January 8

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January 8

Mathematicians

What proportion of mathematicians believe in a supernatural being governing the universe?86.8.201.133 (talk) 00:36, 8 January 2019 (UTC)

The Pew Research Center conducts polls along such lines. Here is a link to one that asks that question about scientists in general (I haven't delved in deep enough to know whether they call out mathematicians specifically, or for that matter even include them; whether mathematics is a science is a controversial topic).

Certainly there are some high-profile recent mathematicians who have believed in God. Kurt Gödel is a particularly interesting example. --Trovatore (talk) 00:45, 8 January 2019 (UTC)

I think it is a load of hooey myself, but as far as I know religious belief seems to be quite a bit more common amongst mathematicians than in the sciences in general. Sorry don't have the figures. It would vary quite a bit by country too according to belief in the general population.. Dmcq (talk) 14:34, 8 January 2019 (UTC)

Are you a mathematician? Just wondering why your personal (non-)belief is relevant here. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 21:52, 8 January 2019 (UTC)

Yes. Not that a single selection will change the proportions much ;-) Dmcq (talk) 23:39, 8 January 2019 (UTC)

Historical access to electricity in the UK

I've been looking for stats, but cannot find any: I want a time series of the % of British households with electricity supplied to them. All I have found is a current (probably slightly misleading) set from 1990 to present, with 100% for each year!--Leon (talk) 19:45, 8 January 2019 (UTC)

There's still the odd isolated house without electricity, but I think it has been at least 99.9% since the 1960s when the last of the significant communities were supplied. Perhaps someone can find the figures? All I can find are some figures for gas supply where the connections rose from 7.7 million out of 18.8 million households in 1970 to 23.3 million in 2011 (something odd about those figures?). Dbfirs 19:58, 8 January 2019 (UTC)

May not help but the table here https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/729986/Electricity_since_1920.xls lists the number of consumers for every year since 1920 MilborneOne (talk) 20:27, 8 January 2019 (UTC)

Going a bit further back: Victorian & Edwardian Services (Houses) 1850-1914 - 4 Late 19th century - Middle Class says, "Incandescent lighting by electricity actually predates its application to gas, having been introduced by Edison and Swan in 1879. Electricity for private use was first generated in Brighton and in Holborn in 1882 followed by parts of Kensington in 1887 but progress was slow and in 1910 only 2% of British homes had electricity". Alansplodge (talk) 11:07, 10 January 2019 (UTC)