In scientific discipline and mathematics , it has been a moderately common natural event for two unlike people / teams to be working on the same problem , and devise the same solution . After all , both fields are come to with finding fundamental rule that regularise maths and science , it should n’t be surprising that these would now and then be discovered severally .
On very rare occasion , people can independently come up with something that has been discovered centuries prior .
" Isaac Newton just copied me , " oneRedditor claimedthis week , for representative . " I ’m a high schooler and I ’ve been go on this math ' branch ' that help you with graphing , particularly expanse under a graph , or loop topology and sums , cause I wanted to do some clobber with neural mesh , because I was discover about them online . Now , the employment was n’t really all that quick , but it was something . "
Graph showing how the area under a curve can be calculated using the trapezoid rule.Image credit: Mkwadee/Wikimedia Commons(CC BY-SA 3.0)
This is an orbit which , while a high - schooler may not have heard of it , is a middling significant cock within math .
" Just a few weeks ago we started memorize infinitesimal calculus in family , " Redditor ThatGuyWhoLikesMoney contribute . " Newton copied me . I hate him . "
While there ’s no shame in a high - schooler rediscover mathematics rules – in fact , as many commenters agreed , that ’s pretty awesome – others pointed out that academic have made the same mistake , and in equal - refresh journals .
In 1994 , a newspaper put out in the journalDiabetes Careappeared to claim the uncovering of " Tai ’s Model " , a " numerical model for the decision of full area under curve from various metabolic study " . The paper was aimed at correcting the " lack of under- or overestimation of the full surface area under a metabolic bender " .
to do so , the author outline a method of calculating the area underneath a curve through the clever use of known shape .
" The strategy of this mathematical manikin is to fraction the total country under a curve ball into single modest segments such as square , rectangles , and triangles , whose areas can be precisely driven accord to existing geometrical formulas , " the author , Mary M. Tai , explain . " The area of the individual segments are then added to obtain the full area under the bend . "
While a pretty smart way of life of doing it , and certainly a helpful way of calculating the sphere underneath a curve , there was just one belittled trouble that mathematicians took offence with ; the method acting had been known about for centuries . As such , several mathematicians answer in letter of the alphabet form , explaining that they were loth to rename it " Tai ’s mannikin " following the new theme .
" I remember Tai for producing a correct method for bet the total area under the curve . It uses the trapezoid rule , a basic geometric concept , which is that the expanse of a os trapezoideum is the mean of the length of the two parallel sides time the width,“one replyexplains . " This method acting has been used by those of us in the field for many years and , in my opinion , does not take a new name . "
" The trapezoidal rule is used in undergraduate calculus course to instance and develop the calculus of definite integrals . concretion students set out estimating area under a know curve by dividing the 10 - axis into small intervals and totaling the area of the result trapezoid bone , " another letter of the alphabet explicate . " The exercise demonstrates that the error in the region calculation lessen as the length of the ten - axis intervals is decreased . Definite integrals are then defined by taking the limit of the os trapezoideum ’s plus as the x - axis interval go to zero . "
Some were explicit in point out " that the trapezoidal principle was cognize to Isaac Newton in the seventeenth century " . Yet more response complained about Tai ’s numerical notation ( using a small cristal rather than a cap ) but did not really interrogate the validity of the rule , which is well - established .
Tai react to the letters , explaining that she had derived it independently .
" During a session with my statistical advisor , and after examining several alternate method acting , I worked out the model in front of him . The concept behind it is apparently common sense , and one does not have to consult the trapezoid rule to enter it out , " Tai excuse . " The trapezoid formula is really not Nobel Prize stuff , such as the double helix or jump cistron . I also used the formulas to calculate the surface area of a foursquare or a trigon without have intercourse whose rule were being surveil . "
Tai went on to explain that she had not published the theoretical account as a " large discovery or accomplishment " , but because colleagues at the Obesity Research Center of St Luke’s - Roosevelt Hospital Center and Columbia University where she bring had begun using it for ease , and had started to call it " Tai ’s chemical formula " .
" Later , because the investigators were unable to mention an unpublished employment , I submitted it for publication at their requests , " Tai added . " Therefore , my name was rubber - stamp on the model before its publishing . "
The conflict seems to have gone down in comparatively good humor , with the main article being cited565 times , likely in jest by further investigator who necessitate to utilize the trapezoidal rule . As with the gamey - schooler above , there is no pity in rederiving mathematical rules which can be trace back toBabylonian times . But that ’s why it ’s good to check with the lit , before you get a pile of letter of the alphabet from mathematicians .
