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In Obscurity

droctothorpe.github.io

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Re: In Obscurity

#31

Post by wrycoder »

r00tanon wrote: post #28
drieddust wrote: post #12

I will get down voted for saying it. But Newton most likely didn't invent Calculus. Circumstantial evidence suggest that Kerala School of mathematics passed the knowledge to the Jesuit missionaries who in turn might have passed it on to the Newton. Link to the research on this topic[0]. [0] https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/indians-predated-...

In Newton's case, even if there were hints in existing literature available to him at the time of concepts like limit and derivative, which is arguable, he would still have had to connect all the dots and create a workable new mathematics largely on his own, which he did. What's also clear through the examples in his Principia, he was using his Calculus to solve problems no one had solved before. So, no downvote here…

I'll just let Newton and Leibniz argue it out. And I'll go re-read Stephenson's Baroque Trilogy.

Re: In Obscurity

#32

Post by droctothorpe »

derbOac wrote: post #25

This is a topic that fascinates me. Some of it is maybe me wrestling with some of my own frustrations, but this general issue of the pressures of popular demand versus going your own way, and how society attributes credit and value to ideas and discoveries is fascinating to me. Issues like unacknowledged contributions, discoverers, people who withdraw from society and produce contributions that go unknown for a long…

The fact that Stigler's Law adheres to Stigler's Law is hilarious. Thanks for sharing!

Re: In Obscurity

#33

Post by droctothorpe »

Ologn wrote: post #26

On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres was not published until a month before Copernicus died. On the Origin of Species was not published until 1859 - Darwin had the basic ideas down in 1839, but did not start thinking to publish until Alfred Russel Wallace started to publish in the mid/late 1850s, which is probably what pushed him into finally publishing. Also, Darwin only alluded to humans in the work, and didn…

Thanks for sharing these examples. I feel like stories like this, collectively, could constitute an interesting book.

Re: In Obscurity

#34

Post by droctothorpe »

gjm11 wrote: post #24
drieddust wrote: post #12

I will get down voted for saying it. But Newton most likely didn't invent Calculus. Circumstantial evidence suggest that Kerala School of mathematics passed the knowledge to the Jesuit missionaries who in turn might have passed it on to the Newton. Link to the research on this topic[0]. [0] https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/indians-predated-...

I was going to say: "I'm torn, because usually I have a policy of downvoting every HN comment I see that says 'I'm going to get downvoted for this', but this looks really interesting". But then I checked your link, and in fact it doesn't at all say that Newton's work on calculus wasn't original. The thing it claims Keralan mathematicians might have done first was infinite series . So I can downvote you for pre-emptiv…

What an emotional roller coaster!

Re: In Obscurity

#35

Post by drieddust »

gjm11 wrote: post #24
drieddust wrote: post #12

I will get down voted for saying it. But Newton most likely didn't invent Calculus. Circumstantial evidence suggest that Kerala School of mathematics passed the knowledge to the Jesuit missionaries who in turn might have passed it on to the Newton. Link to the research on this topic[0]. [0] https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/indians-predated-...

I was going to say: "I'm torn, because usually I have a policy of downvoting every HN comment I see that says 'I'm going to get downvoted for this', but this looks really interesting". But then I checked your link, and in fact it doesn't at all say that Newton's work on calculus wasn't original. The thing it claims Keralan mathematicians might have done first was infinite series . So I can downvote you for pre-emptiv…

Thanks for investing so much energy. I regret to be the source of emotional conflict. :)
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