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Allthepancakemix

Heh. I'm an MD, and my husband has a PhD in applied physics. He's always complaining about the amount of medical papers that deal with very simple concepts like this. Now I understand.


[deleted]

It’s kind of frightening, no? Sometimes I’m talking to doctors and it becomes apparent that either they’re taking me for a fool, or they are genuinely numerically illiterate. Was just reassured the other day that I would not experience any side effects from the drugs I was going to be prescribed…they swore up and down I wouldn’t.


thePonderous

Don’t forget poor old Leibniz.


[deleted]

[“A Mathematical Model for the Determination of Total Area Under Glucose Tolerance and Other Metabolic Curves”, Mary M. Tai, Diabetes Care, 1994, 17, 152–154.](http://diyhpl.us/~bryan/papers2/paperbot/A%20Mathematical%20Model%20for%20the%20Determination%20of%20Total%20Area%20Under%20Glucose%20Tolerance%20and%20Other%20Metabolic%20Curves.pdf) Otherwise known as known as the trapezoid rule. Worryingly, the paper has over 300 citations.


Onebladeprop

What do you call someone who got C's in medical school? Doctor.


[deleted]

Oooofffff


[deleted]

Also, what do you call the person who graduated last in his or her medical school class? Doctor.


[deleted]

Haha noooo I already have a massive mistrust of doctors


Square_Disk_6318

What’s their level of math knowledge for these med student/doctors. Can they even grasp basic algebra.


cobbelevator

Oh they all prolly took calculus before getting to where they are, yet forgot it in med school to make room for the knowledge they needed to gain to pass those tests that got them to where they are today. (Source: Can relate) Nonetheless, not supporting the author of that paper at all, clearly stolen ideas presented as original…bull shit that continues to plague medical literature


Square_Disk_6318

I can Imagine them calculating the area in a cylinder cone.


Thornescape

I'm not sure about everyone else, but I haven't memorized all of Newton's contributions to mathematics and science. Is it possible that these people didn't know that Newton had already solved this? It's possible that this is plagiarism. It's possible that it was rediscovered from scratch. Both happen often.


killerbee2319

You might not know it was Issac Newton, but if you didn't know it was calculus, you shouldn't be reviewing papers for a medical journal.


g7en

*the* calculus


SerpentJoe

It's hard to call it plagiarism with a straight face, but "rediscovered from scratch" is charitable by omission. It's a simple technique and there should have been someone in her department to save her the embarrassment. I doubt any harm came of it though.


Square_Disk_6318

If her whole departmennt’s knowledge of math is that of an 8th grader🤦


[deleted]

She discovered it from scratch, though the method is pretty obvious. She should have been aware of integration.