Timeline for What are some examples of narrowly missed discoveries in the history of mathematics?
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
8 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 21, 2010 at 16:58 | comment | added | Franz Lemmermeyer | Newton and Leibniz at least had examples of functions, and they knew what a variable was. Archimedes did not. | |
| Jun 20, 2010 at 18:15 | comment | added | Andy Putman | I'm not a historian, but I'm pretty sure that both derivatives and integrals were studied in some form before Newton and Leibniz. Their accomplishments were 1. discovering the fundamental theorem of calculus, and 2. giving a systematic treatment of derivatives and integrals. | |
| Jun 20, 2010 at 14:19 | comment | added | A Stasinski | Here is what David Mumford says about a proposition of Archimedes (cf. EMS Newsletter, Dec 08): "...he [Archimedes] is evaluating a Riemann sum of $\int_0^\theta\sin(\phi)d\phi$, /.../ No historian will convince me that his idea is not that same of mine when looking at this mathematical proposition." It seems that Archimedes did indeed discover some of the basic ideas of calculus, expressed in a geometric language. | |
| Jun 20, 2010 at 11:57 | comment | added | Zsbán Ambrus | To Franz Lemmermeyer: you know, I'm not really sure Newton and Leibniz knew what functions are either. | |
| Jun 20, 2010 at 7:13 | comment | added | The Mathemagician | @Franz Yeah,RIGHT?My question exactly! Archimedes almost discovering integration is like saying Newton almost discovered general relativity except for some erronous base assumptions and the absence of multilinear algebra. | |
| Jun 20, 2010 at 6:45 | comment | added | Franz Lemmermeyer | How can you almost discover calculus without knowing what a function is? | |
| Mar 26, 2010 at 4:08 | comment | added | Sammy Black | And Apollonius, as well. | |
| Mar 25, 2010 at 20:09 | history | answered | Mark Biggar | CC BY-SA 2.5 |