I would say it was a matter of interest led by cultural biases, not lack of imagination. It is impossible to look at the ideas of Archimedes and not be dumbfoun

I would say it was a matter of interest led by cultural biases, not lack of imagination. It is impossible to look at the ideas of Archimedes and not be dumbfounded by his supreme creativity. Archimedes was able to think of infinitesimals and come up with some of the basics of integral calculus but seemed to think of his methods as an unwholesome but useful tool so he never published them. Who knows where things would have gone if he had. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Method_of_Mechanical_Theorems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Method_of_Mechanical_Theore...