Where the Lines Overlap

Think about the joy of listening to your favorite song in your mp3 player, the joy of buying your guilty pleasures using your credit cards, and the joy of seeing a structure with an amazing architecture.  These are just some simple joys that we have experienced at some points in our lives. However, have we ever thought about the people who paved way into making these simple joys happen?

                The documentary entitled “The Frontiers of Science” brought me to the journey of the people who have contributed in the field of Mathematics and in the course of our life today. Their journey was not always about triumph. There was feud, misunderstanding, struggle, and cowardice. This is why I found the movie a bit of tragic.

                Take, for example, the case between Newton and Leibniz arguing who discovered calculus first. Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz happen to discover calculus at very close time points, Newton being ahead of Leibniz. However, since this is one chance of a lifetime to be known for something and have a mark as a person who changed the world, Newton fought for his right over the discovery and charged Leibniz for plagiarizing Newton’s works. I really felt bad for Leibniz. What if no plagiarism occurred? What if they just happened to have the discovered the same idea at the same time? They could have collaborated with each other and developed theorems with each other.

                Despite all of this, Leibniz never gave up. This is why I have so much respect for him. He worked independently from Newton and developed his theorems on differential and integral calculus. I could say that he was a very hardworking man as his writings which could fit in a big library were shown in the documentary. Leibniz may have felt underappreciated when he was alive but if he could only see how his discoveries made a huge impact in the world today. His concept of differential and integral calculus are the ones being used today. He is a perfect example that one should learn to stand up every time he/she falls.

                Another mathematician mentioned in the documentary who inspired me just like Leibniz was Pierre Fermat. He was the man behind the modern number theory which is applied in the usage of codes that protect credit cards. He was perceived as an amateur. However, he never let it hinder him from achieving greater things. His passion for looking for patterns in numbers and battling with mathematical problems drove him into his success. Indeed, passion takes you into greater heights.

                Karl Gauss, on the other hand, taught me another lesson to live by. Gauss realized that the shape of the space was never flat which made him think that we are living in a curved universe. His discovery could have led him into much higher success in life. However, he never had the courage to publish it. This taught me a thing about taking risks.

                These people are not just mathematicians who shared a great passion in analyzing numbers. They are the people who changed the way we see the world. Their journey may have been different from one another. Some are tragic and some are triumphant. However, their journey led to one thing. Each of them served as an inspiration to a lot of people.  That’s where the lines overlap.