Agnesi's Figures (1748)
|
Pascal's Triangle did not originate
with Pascal. The Pythagorean Theorem was known long before Pythagoras.
The cornerstone of our sacred axiomatic system probably did not originate
with Euclid. Certainly most of the mathematics was already known.
Later, Taylor did not "invent" the Taylor Series. James Gregory was
working on Taylor Series when Taylor was only a few days old. Maclaurin
did not invent the Maclaurin Series. Mercator discovered the Maclaurin
Series for ln( 1 +x) before Maclaurin was born...........
Science and mathematics have numerous examples of people credited for work
that was already known to others.
MGA selected these three curves
to end her first volume, Tomo I, the background preparation for the Calculus
starting in Vol. 2. Instructors and students should note her
choice of curves that exquisitely illustrate a maximum, a line of symmetry,
an asymptote, an example of a function approaching zero as the x approaches
positive or negative infinity, a cusp, and a folium.
