Actually mathematics got it from chemistry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eilhard_Mitscherlich http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eilhard_Mitscherlich Before maths, i

Actually mathematics got it from chemistry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eilhard_Mitscherlich http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eilhard_Mitscherlich Before maths, it was probably mostly geologists that used it. It's also used plenty in evolutionary biology, but this was probably after maths (not sure though).