> People of today are just as smart. It was only simpler then. An additional effect is that when people learn the major past discoveries (e.g., calculus, mecha

> People of today are just as smart. It was only simpler then. An additional effect is that when people learn the major past discoveries (e.g., calculus, mechanics), the version that is taught is often significantly different from how the discoverer cast it or how the idea was originally formulated. Years of teaching, refinement, and finding other techniques to solve problems or prove theorems makes it easier to learn. One example is "Maxwell's Equations" for electro-magnetism; the most commonly used modern form consisting of 4 equations was condensed from Maxwell's 20 equations by Oliver Heaviside: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_equations#Formulation_in_terms_of_electric_and_magnetic_fields https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_equations#Formulat... If the original 20 equation form was more conducive to use and teaching, I suspect we those would be more widely used.