When I think of linear algebra or calculus concepts, it always helps to visualize them as lines and planes. It's tough to imagine these concepts being discovered without such visualizations, although they are clearly man-made.

I know that elephants used to be used as mounts in battle. Royal families have had (and I guess some do today) lions as pets. Even though the wolf was the main animal chosen for domestication as far as we see today, have there been periods of attempts to domesticate other animals that aren't common knowledge?

I'm going to sew a viking costume based on either findings or paintings of east-going vikings. That is Swedish vikings or Rus. I'm looking for clothes in the period 800-1000 A.D.

I remember my APUSH teacher years ago telling us that the AP graders would love someone who could mention that if that was there was a Lincoln essay topic, but I'm a little rusty on that now.

I barely hear anything in the news about elections if it's not a presidential election year.

Has it always been like this?

If so, why so? If not, what changed?

In the Ottoman Empire, Christians were allowed to practice their religion freely, though I'm aware there were plenty of other restrictions and limitations imposed on them. Were there any contemporary Christian kingdoms with a similar policy toward Muslims?

Also, and perhaps more generally, were there any Muslim populations at all in Europe in the 600 or so years that the Ottoman Empire existed?

I'm asking about the Ottoman period because I made the horrible mistake last night of trying to watch a film called Day of the Siege on Netflix, a godawful production that is best avoided. The film purports to tell the story of the Battle of Vienna, between the Ottomans and an alliance of Central European states. I turned it off early (it was that awful) but it prompted me to think up these questions.

I know very little about this event and wish to learn more. There is nothing in the book list regarding this specific revolution. Also, any recommendations for the next thirty or so years after that? Up until the 1950s maybe?

I will send a compiled list to one of the mods and hopefully some recommendations can be added to the book list on the side bar.

There are many tales within in the Iliad and the Odyssey that would work perfectly well as standalone stories. Does anything of the stories that serve as the basis for the Homeric poems survive, outside of those poems?

I'm trying to make a comparison between how unreliable, in terms of breaking down, tanks were in WWI, to how reliable they were in WWII. Does anyone have any figures for how many Allied Sherman M4s broke down at El-Alamein (any of the battles or an amalgamation of all of them) in relation to how many were deployed in the first place? Thanks!

Punch cards? Vacuum tubes? How did it actually function?

Seeing as the U.S. was only attacked by the Empire of Japan at Pearl Harbor and accounts of concentration camps came out during the war, how did the U.S. justify going to war with Germany in 1941 apart from conflicts with its' allies?

Apologies if I'm working off misguided information, but it's my understanding that for 19 years Louis XIV didn't take the throne because he'd been too young and his mother was regent: how did France change, and how did it affect the burden placed on Louis XIV as king when he did take control?

They seem to have had a lot of advantages, including land that the French and Germans fought over for hundreds of years. Why didn't they succeed and how close did they get?

After looking at some (vague) recounts, it appears that the German treatment of POWs was drastically different between Russians, communists, Americans, etc.

Were there certain policies put in place by the Germans that allotted for different treatment? Was it motivated by SED principles? Much of it fell under violations of the Geneva Convention, yet there seems to be a drastic inconsistency towards Russians especially... why?

First off, I don't know if this is the right place to ask this. I've searched all over the internet but had no luck. My grandfather is pushing 85 this year. He has lived in the small village of Vlamertinge, not far from Ypres (Belgium) his whole life. During WWII he was just a kid, but he has some very lively memories of this period. His village was occupied by the germans for about 3 years. His parents were forced to house an officer in their home. He has a lot of fond memories of that man, he was named Fritz (no last name known). After the liberation of the village his german company was evacuated to the Ardennes. They never heard of him again. Only in the last monts my grandfather has expressed the wish to learn more about this man. I've googled a lot in the passed weeks but I can't seem to find anything. So, is there a way to find out more about this man?

Edit: The officer was stationed at Flugplatz Vlamertinge B-59 an airfield.

I'm reading the 1892 short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" and the narrator refers to her and her husband sleeping in different beds.

He said there was only one window and not room for two beds, and no near room for him if he took another.

Was this a common thing until recently? or did it have to do with Victorian morality?