I think it's also interesting that we don't always know the applications for mathematical insights. IIRC, Euler invented graph theory (even the traveling salesm

I think it's also interesting that we don't always know the applications for mathematical insights. IIRC, Euler invented graph theory (even the traveling salesman problem) and basically wrote that he knew of no applications for it. Now we know that traveling salesman is equivalent to graph-coloring which is crucial for compliers when assigning efficient register allocation in deeply pipe-lined architectures.