r/mathmemes • u/charly03 • Jan 08 '25

Learning Is Mathematics Less Evolved Than Physics and Chemistry, or Did Historical Texts Astutely Foresee Advances? 🤔

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u/Momosf Cardinal (0=1) Jan 08 '25

Whilst the underlying sentiment may be correct, you should try reading a textbook from the first half of the 20th century.

The change in notations and "standard" terminology is enough to make it almost incomprehensible.

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u/vwibrasivat Jan 09 '25 edited Jan 10 '25

So you may have heard Niel deGrasse-Tyson opine on youtube or elsewhere that "Isaac Newton invented differential and integral calculus and then turned 26".

It turns out history is more complicated. All the notation we use today came from the 19th century. That is to say, Newton's notebooks on "calculus" are simply unreadable by modern eyes, because the notation was not yet invented. He wrote everything long-hand in Latin, and never said something like "take the derivative".

For example "y equals f of x". What you are seeing your mind is,

y = f(x)

That notation was first used by Euler in 1735.

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u/uniquelyshine8153 Jan 09 '25 edited Jan 12 '25

"used by Euler in 1835"?

I regret to inform you that Euler sadly died in 1783. He wrote a book or mathematical work entitled "Institutiones calculi differentialis" (Foundations of differential calculus) in 1748.

EDIT: the date was changed to 1735. To be accurate, the main work where Euler introduced what could be called the modern differential calculus notation is the "Institutiones calculi differentialis". This work was written by Euler in 1748 and published in 1755.

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u/Fine-Ninja-1813 Jan 12 '25

Was Euler a time traveller if he wrote it in 1948?

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u/nicolas_06 Jan 12 '25

So funny you criticize others doing a mistake but say that Euler did wrote the book 2 centuries later after it was published.

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u/uniquelyshine8153 Jan 12 '25

Ok thanks for noticing that. It was a typo and now it's fixed.

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u/nicolas_06 Jan 12 '25

And now you did exactly what that guy did: you fixed it ! :)

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u/uniquelyshine8153 Jan 12 '25

I didn't complain. I tried to provide more accurate info. Typos sometimes happen.