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by k__ 2864 days ago
I found it kinda funny that most lectures in my Math 101 started with "the little Euler" or "the little Gauss". Like those guys did all of Math on their own when they were children, haha.
1 comments

Well, Euler and Gauss knew all there was to know about mathematics at the time. That consisted of algebra up to quintic equations plus their own inventions.

You'd be unpleasantly surprised if you saw a turn-of-the century-math high school textbook (1900 or so.) Pretty advanced stuff towards the end.

That consisted of algebra up to quintic equations plus their own inventions

Well, calculus had been invented before Euler was born, and a lot of advanced math had been developed by the time Gauss appeared (a lot of it by none other than Euler).