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Indians predated Newton 'discovery' by 250 years

physorg.com — A little known school of scholars in southwest India discovered one of the founding principles of modern mathematics hundreds of years before Newton according to new research.

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  • uberneoconcert, on 10/10/2007, -4/+63not shocking
    • Midvicious, on 10/10/2007, -6/+10Not at all. There were dozens of civilizations who had already founded these principles ranging from the Fertile Crescent region to central Africa.

      Giving credit to whom and for what all really depends who's writing the history.
      • cbthatsme, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Proof
        I'm not going to assume that you know wtf you're talking about.
      • emehrkay, on 10/10/2007, -4/+1Thank you midvicious.
    • Fracture98, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1They'd have been credit if they hadn't DRM'd it, and removed the ability for the rest of the world to use it under fair-use laws.
    • rootofunity, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1If you knew anything about Mathematics or the history of mathematics it is actually quite shocking. I mean this finding does not at all diminish the impact that Newton had on mathematics and physics but 250 years before Newton, when infinity was still a controversial subject matter, a few indians were playing with infinite series. I mean aspects quantum mechanics relies heavily on infinite series and spaces of infinite series (Hiblert Spaces)
      • Tyrsson, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I'd agree that it's fascinating, but shocking? That seems rather extravagant. History shows that the wheel has been reinvented many times...
      • noumuon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2actually, knowing about mathematics and its history is what makes this not shocking. there is not a linear progression for the the discovery of mathematical principles, and various things have been discovered independently by many people worldwide.
  • openthink, on 10/10/2007, -17/+11amazing what you discover when you start looking at things without predispositions....
    • zaibatsu, on 10/10/2007, -2/+20I agree, if our historical records were a little better I'm sure we would find even more startling revelations from Egypt and South America
      • eth3l, on 10/10/2007, -2/+3you mean if our historical records were complete, that is included knowledge from all known societes. and by the way - we have libraries full of information gatehred from Egypt so dont go on about how the western world doesnt give Egyptians credit.
    • Yazilliclick, on 10/10/2007, -1/+11I don't see what predispositions has to do with it to any great degree. The problems with finding lots of this historical information from other countries is that a) Their own governments aren't really looking or putting much in the way of resources towards it b) Great changes in languages to the point that people do not understand them anymore c) The places a lot of these things come from no longer value science and many are actively opposed to it's ideals and having foreigners digging stuff up.
      • jaxcs, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0if you would bother to read the article the author states: "There were many reasons why the contribution of the Kerala school has not been acknowledged - a prime reason is neglect of scientific ideas emanating from the Non-European world - a legacy of European colonialism and beyond. And then he cites reasons for his belief.
    • apologeticus, on 10/10/2007, -10/+2If you think it's possible for a human to look at something completely objectively, you're quite naive.
      • jaxcs, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0I don't think you really understand the concept of objectivity. It isn't about being a blank slate but making as few assumptions as possible.
    • mikesbaker, on 10/10/2007, -4/+3Newton is still on top. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton - don't get me wrong I am totally interested in this kind of stuff and great article but Newton was still (IMO) the best scientific mind until Einstein came along.
      • Bdog2g2, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1"best scientific mind"

        that's objective, can you give me your metrics you used to determine this ranking.
      • curiousgeorge1, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2no man NIKOLA TESLA was as great or even better than Einstein and The reason why he he was buried in obscurity is globalize free energy for everyone to use thus Edison and Westinghouse and U.S government. He made over 700 patents and alot more other great ideas he even proposed ( though not for destruction) the death ray, which could have been as deadly as the atomic bomb. look him up
        • rootofunity, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Nikola Telsa was a great mind but Newton is by far a much greater mind the Both Nikola Telsa and Einstein. I am a huge fan of both but the number of achievements and the impact those achievements made on society is quite Superior then any other mind that has ever lived.

          For instance, Einstein used the mathematics of Lorentz and Minchowski to formulate Special and General Relativity theory. Newton on the other hand developed the mathematics to prove the things he needed to prove. Such as the gravitational relationship of the two body problem, three body problem, etc also not to mention the Laws of Motion and his contributions to optics.

          Newton, helped developed a new branch of mathematics (calculus) and united branches of science to create a large part of the classical physics we all know today.
        • noumuon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0@rootofunity: the only problem with that is that as fields develop they require more specialization towards particular areas. newton is seen as having contributed far more than most others because physics was a young science. today, you can easily have people who contribute just as much effort only to develop far less in a particular field because the direction of knowledge has led to extremely detailed branches thus requiring an exponentially more amount of work for far less of a result.

          while the development of basic calculus was impressive, einstein relying on lorentz for special relativity and riemann and ricci and various other mathematicians for general relativity (note: minkowski's work of the geometry of space-time came after special relativity and was initially ignored by einstein but later taken up by him) does not detract from einstein's work because mathematics was also becoming more and more specialized. one could easily argue that pascal is on equal grounds with newton as well considering his various contributions to physics and mathematics.
      • noumuon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1there is no ranking for "best scientific mind". to pick one out of the countless brilliant scientists is just a demonstration of your lack of knowledge in science. you can easily have a favorite scientist, but to posit that one is the best is absurd. newton, maxwell, pascal, plank, einstein and feynman are just a few that i can rattle off the top of my head that are all on par with each other. there are countless others that exist today that nobody hears about because of the degree of specialization in any given field. and to the person going on about tesla, there is no conspiracy. he was brilliant, sure, but there's nothing to put him above any of the others.
  • rabidstrike, on 10/10/2007, -24/+3vanamadiyum kandupidichathu njangalanada mayirukale.....
    • rejoined, on 10/10/2007, -6/+9Dude, this is Digg..and English is the prevalent language spoken here.
      • thcobbs, on 10/10/2007, -9/+1klatoo nicto verada.
        • alciadanet, on 10/10/2007, -3/+2Klatoo Verata Nicto
          • thcobbs, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4You got the point...

            and if you're going to correct someone: Klaatu Verata Nicto
      • SiliconRain, on 10/10/2007, -5/+5Dude! This is the internet. American doesn't own it.
        • AntBing, on 10/10/2007, -3/+5Actually Al Gore invented it, and since he's American I'd say we own it!
        • TheKorn2, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Go ahead, just try and use the internet without the american owned root servers.

          pwned!
    • treed, on 10/10/2007, -2/+5Oh, yeah? Well klaatu varada necktie to you, too!
  • Junkyarddawg, on 10/10/2007, -15/+20So an indian text has what "amounts to" a pi-series, and the series can be used to calculate pi.
    Ehm... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_numerical_approximations_of_%CF%80

    It's not like Newton "invented" pi...
    • jmpeagle, on 10/10/2007, -2/+17I think the point of the article was about infinite series, not who discovered Pi.
    • halavais, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Exactly, jmpeagle, and the Wikipeidia article basically recaps the original post: it was the Indians who first used an infinite series as an approximation...
    • NerdyNinja, on 10/10/2007, -5/+1Newton clearly discovered Pi! What do you think he did with that falling apple? Clearly made Pi filling. Q.E.D.

      Edit: Okay, godawful pun. I apologize.
      • noumuon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1every time i see QED, i instantly think: wtf does quantum electrodynamics have to do with anything you just said. latin be damned.
    • dumpydooby, on 10/10/2007, -3/+2The article makes a very direct distinction between "invention" and "discovery." Mathematical formulae are discovered, not invented. You seem to have missed the mark. Well done.
      • Junkyarddawg, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3That, sir, is possibly the dumbest comment I've ever seen on Digg. Congratulations.
  • keeling0ver, on 10/10/2007, -27/+7They should have applied their discovery and done something useful with it like European society did. Then I might feel sorry for them.
  • sanman, on 10/10/2007, -8/+19http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan
    • szembek, on 10/10/2007, -14/+5I'm not clicking it.
    • utnomi, on 10/10/2007, -9/+1is that a name or a tongue twister?
    • KarthVader, on 10/10/2007, -3/+4A name. Don't be an ignorant twit.
      • noumuon, on 10/10/2007, -4/+0the ignorant twit is more applicable to the person who can't take a joke.
    • bootle, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1What does Ramanujan have to do with discovering calculus? You're several centuries off buddy
  • SteelChicken, on 10/10/2007, -7/+59and the fact that we just figured this out tells us "discovering something important dont mean ***** if you dont tell anyone"
    • robbyjo, on 10/10/2007, -8/+6It doesn't mean "*****" to Europeans since Asian countries pretty much had no voice at the time.

      Edit: "And there is strong circumstantial evidence that the Indians passed on their discoveries to mathematically knowledgeable Jesuit missionaries who visited India during the fifteenth century."
  • Tyrsson, on 10/10/2007, -9/+54Had the authors simply stopped at the point of saying that the Indian mathematicians had discovered the infinite series before Newton, I could have dugg this article up. However, their supposition that this information was somehow transmitted to Newton through German Jesuit priests is exceedingly tenuous. Stating that a potential, however unlikely, route of communication was possible is hardly credible scholarship. To support this claim at the bare minimum they would have to show that these ideas had, indeed, been written down and translated into a language Newton could understand in a source he was likely to read. It would also help support their dubious claims if they could somehow demonstrate that Newton did not derive his understanding of infinite series from first principles. I sincerely doubt they could do that since Newton tended to document his derivations in considerable detail.
    • haelios, on 10/10/2007, -16/+6Maybe they did. You must realise that the full extent of this dude's research isn't in the PhysOrg article. Read their book before wasting your time typing long, uninformed comments...
      • Tyrsson, on 10/10/2007, -3/+17Well, if "maybe they did," then maybe the author of this article could have pointed that out. It is not being uninformed to point out weaknesses in an article. Rather, it's called analytical reading. You should try it sometime.
      • Mysrt, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2owned
    • apologeticus, on 10/10/2007, -5/+5I agree. It's like when people say Jesus "could have" traveled to India in his youth and learned about eastern mysticism, reincarnation, etc. Their arguments then proceed to ASSume this is true and they turn Jesus into some new age pothead w/out the slightest shred of evidence that he actually ever had ANY contact with such thought.
      • Tyrsson, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6You see the same sort of thing with regard to the "discovery" of the New World. For instance, Icelanders reached North America LONG before Columbus. They even established settlements here. This has led some to conclude that Columbus must have learned about the New World from maps created by Icelanders. Such a thing is theoretically possible, but it doesn't follow that he MUST have learned about America from Icelanders simply because they were there first. It's far more likely that the Icelandic discovery was lost in the dustbin of time since their settlements never took hold and that Columbus just happened upon the new continent just as countless others have done for as long as the Americas have been inhabited.
  • str3ama, on 10/10/2007, -5/+27"You're not a country unless you have a flag." - British colonists
    • ametory, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5Claimed the brave colonists till the natives ran out of patience.
      • str3ama, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1lol ..it was a line about the British 'discovering' India from Eddie Izzard ..
  • MadScientist68, on 10/10/2007, -2/+17This article smacks a bit of bitterness over the India's colonial past. However, horrible that it was it still remains in the past. Present day researchers in the West most likely have little to no idea that this even existed being unfamiliar with that language. Let's not assume that it was simply because there was some kind of bias. Let's face the fact that scientists do not know every language under the Sun, and therefore will limit their knowledge of languages to that which benefits them the most.
  • hesslink111, on 10/10/2007, -4/+0"school of scholars"
  • Vezran, on 10/10/2007, -3/+23Archimedes discovered the same basic principles 2000 years before that, but because of the crusades and the burning of the library at alexandria, almost all of that immense wealth of knowledge was lost.
    • sonicdevo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9...mostly because of the burning of the library at Alexandria
    • biggrz, on 10/10/2007, -0/+14unfortunately the Alexandria library predated the concept of 'backups' and 'disaster recovery'.
    • NecroSexy, on 10/10/2007, -7/+4You can thank religion for its wonderful contribution.
      • Tyrsson, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3This is a bit disingenuous. Rather, you can thank one expression of one particular religion for its "contribution." It's hardly as though all religions were out there burning libraries. In fact, many religions were busy building libraries.
        • noumuon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3and some religions were saying: "to create and to destroy are the same thing expressing itself in different ways." ;)
        • Scheissen, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Bull ***** *****! Religion burned that library down and writers built libraries. Why would you people of faith need a library for one book?
  • Bagrad, on 10/10/2007, -13/+5I always knew that there was something fishy about Newton.
    • mikesbaker, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7did you read the article? I don't think you did. It never said he didn't give us calculus it just said the Indians had the concept of the infinite series down.
    • Jeffler, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5RTFA, he didn't steal it, but it had been discovered before and not shown.
    • paco0e, on 10/10/2007, -2/+0Fishy besides the fact that he use to drink mercury daily and his weird spiritual views?
  • Piedramente, on 10/10/2007, -0/+15Not too surprising, but Newton gets the credit because it is his work that was actually used....
  • brandonvan, on 10/10/2007, -2/+33It's not always who's first to discover its who's first to market. Just ask Microsoft.
    • xerexes1, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1In that case, it's not who's first to discover or first to market. It's who is first to dominate.
  • bhattsan, on 10/10/2007, -10/+8Sigh...this is the same way no one credits the Arabs these days for inventing algebra!
    • blaser, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4No the Arabs just stole the ideas from the ancient greeks and indians
    • nicc, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1not sure if you forgot the /sarcasm....
      it is widely taught in school that algebra came from the Muslims. (at least it was when I was in high school in the late 80s)
  • mikesbaker, on 10/10/2007, -3/+9Newton still stands as the father of calculus. FTA - the most relevant point (IMO):
    "The brilliance of Newton's work at the end of the seventeenth century stands undiminished - especially when it came to the algorithms of calculus.

    "But other names from the Kerala School, notably Madhava and Nilakantha, should stand shoulder to shoulder with him as they discovered the other great component of calculus- infinite series. "
  • elmoslemur, on 10/10/2007, -4/+3No suprise. But doesnt mean anything if no one else uses your findings. Hell I found the internet before Gore but he'll get all the credit.
  • rowlodge, on 10/10/2007, -7/+1well ill give him credit for bringing this "last free world", we have more or less but thats it. i wonder who would of been the leader, maybe "gangus kahn", or "ayatolla"
  • paneer, on 10/10/2007, -4/+13The Indians had actually developed algebra but because the Arabs work so closely with them they picked it up and is generally why the Arabs get the credit same way that for a while the decimal system was credited to them rather than the Indians who had invented them. But at least the credit of the decimal system is being transferred to the Indians. The problem with Indians is that they coded everything and its hard to uncode unless you know where to look. Who knows what else they discovered back then
    • utnomi, on 10/10/2007, -7/+3If I recall my history lessons correctly, the algebra was known to be in existent among Arabs before they landed the Indian subcontinent.
    • AlphabetPal, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4They also invented arithmetic, the spoken word, writing, fire, the wheel, logic and even thought! But everybody else stole it from them.
    • noumuon, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3i'm pretty sure algebra could have been easily developed by multiple cultures independent of one another. usually this is what happens throughout history. such discoveries are often made by multiple people, see: calculus, quantum electrodynamics, relativity (various people were working on various flavors of relativity, but most proved to be more or less inaccurate as compared to einstein's). particularly trying to credit someone with the decimal system seems a bit absurd. if you can count, it seems natural to use a base ten system considering we have ten fingers to count with.
      • Tyrsson, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Base twelve, however, is oddly common historically.
      • NedStark, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0That is not so weird, if you take into account that 12 is also 3*4, I.e. we can divide it by 3 or 4 without having remainders. This is quite handy for day to day use of e.g. splitting currency or land to a few people.
  • gibsonic, on 10/10/2007, -3/+8i still like Newton's fig snacks better.
  • smeagel, on 10/10/2007, -5/+11Ummm...and Archimedes discovered most of the founding principles of Calculus LONG before Newton or these Indians did. Unfortunately most of his work was lost during the dark ages. So I guess those Indians must have ripped him off...dws..
  • frenchi, on 10/10/2007, -8/+5Title should read "Newton invented outsourcing!"
    • shashishekar, on 10/10/2007, -2/+0there you go......
    • Juicey, on 10/10/2007, -2/+0Thank for for calling and listening to my poorly spoken, scripted English, would you like a cherry Squishy?
  • rlh1, on 10/10/2007, -0/+13Science and mathematics are universal constants. It stands to reason that the same concept or invention can be discovered or applied by different cultures and societies. The Arabs claim algebra as their invention, so do the Greeks and the Indians. Just because the Indians were 250 years a head of Newton, doesn't mean that he had do receive the knowledge from them. They both could have discovered it independent of each other. Human intelligence is pretty much the same from society to society. It's what they do with it.
  • HappyScrappy, on 10/10/2007, -11/+3Apparently Indians also were the first to invent the whaambulance...
  • StormTrooperVII, on 10/10/2007, -9/+2wasn't western. doesn't count.
  • utnomi, on 10/10/2007, -8/+1I even heard the Great Khali is a mexican! Indians bought him for 20 pints of curry and rice!
    • curiousgeorge1, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1Great Khali is a result of soo many indians (second largest population) that were producing big huge bastards just like the world tallest man for china is.
  • ElwoodHerring, on 10/10/2007, -6/+0So now we know who the "giants" were whose shoulders Newton said he was standing on.
  • qcfb, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1This is kind of weird. I don't see what makes this news. I mean historians have known this for a while. It isn't a shocking development. Any historian of science already knows this, I mean I took one class on the history of science and I learned about this.
    • noumuon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0something tells me you didn't learn that indians discovered the infinite series before newton did. leibnitz != indians
  • shroominbal, on 10/10/2007, -5/+0This is not news as the east was robbed from way more treasures then this with not thank you.
    • oldhick, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Boo hoo. Its called history. Lots of places have been robbed and lots of history has been lost. We do the best we can to identify sources and learn what we can about how are world has grown and changed. It is news to some people.
  • Efoi, on 10/10/2007, -8/+4I'm from Kerala. :)
  • Ub3rg33k, on 10/10/2007, -4/+11Giving credit to India for discovering infinite series is fine. Calling Newton a hack is extremely lame. It could equally be said that if the Indians had a 200+ year head start on calculus, why didn't they develop it as much as Newton did? What was the point in developing it in the first place if they made the knowledge inaccessible?

    How about instead of smearing history's figures, we just settle for celebrating their contributions and leave it at that? Every culture has had lots of smart people that did lots of important things.
    • cusoman, on 10/10/2007, -3/+3Except Canadians... I mean, whoever heard of a smart 'nuck?
      • ostracize, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2But you are right about culture:
        "... there is no Canadian culture. I've never read any Canadian literature. And when have you ever heard anyone say, 'Honey, lets stay in and order some Canadian food'?"
        • noumuon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1canadian food? snow with maple syrup obviously.
        • Nitrodist, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2Yeah, let's go get some American food. Hamburgers... oh wait, that's from Hamburg, Germany.
    • noumuon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0umm, did you RTFA? who is calling newton a hack? FTA: "The brilliance of Newton's work at the end of the seventeenth century stands undiminished - especially when it came to the algorithms of calculus."
    • Ub3rg33k, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1They also then suggest he cribbed notes from missionaries, stole the discovery, and claimed it as his own. Not much of a compliment to call you a genius in one breath and a thief the next.
    • Fracture98, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Tell that to Wilbur Franks, the inventor of the "G-Suit" used by all jet fighter pilots. Or Naismith, the inventor of Basketball. Or Woodward, the inventor of the light-bulb who sold the patent to Edison. Or Hopps, the inventor of the pacemaker. Or Banting, the inventor of Insulin process. Or Gosling, the inventor of JAVA. Or Henroteau, the inventor of the Television Camera. Or Fessenden, the inventor of the Walky-talky.
    • prammy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1>> How about instead of smearing history's figures, we just settle for celebrating their contributions and leave it at that?
      >> Every culture has had lots of smart people that did lots of important things.

      The writer is not smearing Newton at all. He even calls Newton's work brilliant.
      But I agree with the latter part of your statement. Nothing can explain it better than a quote (attributed to Newton) "If I have seen further, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of Giants"
  • jason469, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2You've got to give credit when credit is due, unfortunatly we didn't know the Indians knew, so how would we give them credit?
    • blaser, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1lol virtually every invention/scientific research is credited to Europeans. Because no body ever bothered to look outside the west. Marconi is still given credit for the invention of wireless comms but it is known the main component used by Marconi was invented by an Indian professor
      • Fracture98, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Well, this may be true, but the inventor of the wheel hardly deserves credit for inventing the car.
  • miborovsky, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2Mo-tzu came up with "Newton's" 1st law of motion around 400 BC. So what? Big deal.
  • Diffy, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2By saying that they discovered it is completely and utterly stupid. I am sure many people prior to Newton thought of, or played around with the ideas of Calculus. Calc isn't like a new monkey that one can simply discover in the Forrest. What makes Newton the founder (Well co founder, don't forget Leibniz) is the notation, and strict definitions that he composed, better than anyone. That notation and initial lemmas/theories/theorems that he composed was what allowed others to take and expand his work.
    • noumuon, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0again, from the article: "The brilliance of Newton's work at the end of the seventeenth century stands undiminished - especially when it came to the algorithms of calculus."
  • in2deep, on 10/10/2007, -5/+1Wow this was a great article to read...great post with lots of interesting info!
    • dumpydooby, on 10/10/2007, -3/+3A+++++++++++ WOULD DEFINITELY READ AGAIN!!!!11
  • drshane, on 10/10/2007, -3/+3Clap...... Clap......................... Clap.......................
  • nicejai, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5Archimedes predated Indians "discovery" by 1600 years.
    He even took it one step further, and went beyond infinite series into infinite sums.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrature_of_the_Parabola
  • Error601, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1So, where do the Templar Knights fit in?
  • Tobark, on 10/10/2007, -5/+5Too bad they still haven't discovered how to use version control software.
    • dr7greenthumb, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2You mean just commenting out unwanted lines of code doesn't count as version control?
  • nj013, on 10/10/2007, -7/+1well ..***** all newtons and Indians who invented math .... why even do we need it .. it gave birth to money and look where we stand now ...
    • Vonkhan, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2... says the nerd on the internet
      • noumuon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0nerds generally don't question why we need math.
  • roysud, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1The way I see it...It does not matter who discovered calculus first but who researched and found out practical applications to the calculus in various fields...and spread the new found knowledge for further research....I will surely credit Europeans for this....we also need to see that not only Newton but many other great mathematician contributed to the field of calculus after it was discovered ( or rediscovered..whatever you want to say ) by Newton.....
  • pctomac, on 10/10/2007, -3/+0Its really sad that many gr8 works were not known or marketed to the western world..
    But that doesnt mean that they dont deserve appreciation...
    To know more about ancient discoveries, www.iish.org/about.asp
  • lead2thehead, on 10/10/2007, -2/+3Not surprised. The English still thought that the Earth was flat 1,000 years after the Greeks had calculated its circumference.
    • Error601, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Generalize much?
    • hackiavelli, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Unfortunately the Greeks didn't accomplish a whole lot after that.
    • mirunit, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Yes, because it was only the English who thought the world was flat.
      • geiger253, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0No-one educated thought the world was flat. It was propaganda spread about the Catholic church by protestants after the reformation. Why the English should get the blame in this instance I can't fathom, since the English were probably at the forefront of the propoganda effort.
  • Mysrt, on 10/10/2007, -4/+2just another minority tryin to leech off the successful white male
    • KarthVader, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4For your sake, I hope that was sarcasm.
  • wontstoptalking, on 10/10/2007, -3/+0k
  • r2700, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I always went with Horseback Riding, The Wheel and Astronomy before Mathematics
  • thatmarkguy82, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0of course they did...what didn't they do three trillion years before humans could even walk?
    newton still rules.
  • anarchytv, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1I think its pretty obvious that the native americans discovered America first.
  • RichStradler, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Imputing Newton as a potential plagiarist goes beyond the pale.
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