Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Mathematics/2016 October 23

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October 23

What is a Zwicky Search?

In reading Robert Heinlein's Time Enough for Love I came across the term "Zwicky Search which the author has the hero mention in the context of discusssions of genetics and interstellar travel. I assume therefore this has something to do with the astronomer Fritz Zwicky, who discovered neutron stars and (the evidence for) dark matter. Heinlein does not explain what is meant by the term. Can anyone elucidate? Thanks. μηδείς (talk) 20:22, 23 October 2016 (UTC)

Just a possibility, but he proposed the existence of gravitational lenses, which have since been confirmed, and you could use one of those, say with a black hole (not currently consuming matter) as the lens, with a spaceship that moves around it to change the focus, as a "super telescope" to see distant objects more clearly than with any other telescope. See Fritz_Zwicky#Gravitational_lenses. StuRat (talk) 21:57, 23 October 2016 (UTC)

See Morphological box. -- ToE 22:03, 23 October 2016 (UTC)

Yep, Morphological box is it. I'd never have figured that one out. I am also surprised that I have never heard of Fritz Zwicky before searching for this term. The last time I read Time Enough for Love, Wikipedia did not exist. Thanks. μηδείς (talk) 00:35, 24 October 2016 (UTC)