scientific progress normally proceeds in an orderly fashion. however, many breakthrough discoveries in science have come about by luck or accidents. give a specific example for such occurrences.

Question

anonymous · Answer

Well, there is a good anecdote from history: Archimedes of Syracuse was said to have discovered hydrostatics - the displacement of mass within water - while mulling over a problem about a "golden crown" while taking a bath. He noted the bath water rose as he entered it and this gave him the idea of volumetric displacement.

fretje · Answer

that  is called serendipity

fretje · Answer

Kekulé dreamed about the structure of benzene, as a snake biting it's own tail, and thus found the ring structure.

fretje · Answer

einstein asked a painter that had fallen from a scaffold if he experienced the earth as attracting him.  The painter said that the earth had not attracted him but gave him a real hard repelling force instead, this gave the professor some ideas to ponder about?

fretje · Answer

And Newton got an apple on his head.  The first trauma that culminated in a theory of gravity.