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TIL: Carl Friedrich Gauss independently invented the Fast Fourier Transform, over 150 years prior to Cooley and Tukey’s 1965 paper introducing the algorithm. Gauss created the FFT to interpolate the orbits of asteroids.
The history of mathematics is littered with near-simultaneous or redundant discoveries; this is the beauty of the decentralized nature of math. No single individual “controls” any area of research, which helps researchers keep each other in check.
