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0 pointsfragmede1y ago0 comments

> highly checkable

in 1994?

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4 comments · 1 top-level

reshlo1y ago· 3 in thread

Calculus textbooks existed in 1994. It just took me 30 seconds to find “area under a curve” in the index of the one I own, and another 30 seconds to find the section on numerical integration, which describes the trapezoidal approximation.

fragmedeOP1y ago

So you already know the particular area of the larger topic of mathematics that you need to look for, you already have a textbook for that particular subject in your possession, meaning you don't need to go to the library and somehow figure out the right book to choose from the thousands the 510 section; you know what you are looking for exists, and then you aren't surprised you can find it?

I know how to find the area under the curve, but there's so much biology I don't know jack shit about. Back in 1994, It would have been hopeless for me to know the Michaelis-Menten model even existed if it had been relevant to my studies in computer science. That you can right click on those words in my comment in 2025 and get an explanation of what that is and can interrogate chatgpt to get a rigorous understanding of it shouldn't make it seem like finding someone in the math department to help you in 1994 was easier than just thinking logically and reinventing the wheel.

Joker_vD1y ago

There is thing called "higher education". Ostensibly one of its chief purposes is to arm you with all that interconnected knowledge and facts that is useful in your chosen field of study. To the boot, you get all of that from several different human beings who you can converse with, to improve the scope and precision of the knowledge you're receiving. You know, "standing on the shoulders of the giants" and all of that stuff?

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reshlo1y ago

> So you already know the particular area of the larger topic of mathematics that you need to look for

So did the author of the paper. The paper’s title itself mentions the area under a curve. It would not have been difficult to find information about how to calculate an approximation of the area under a curve in the library.

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