The Timeless Textbook Paradox

The eternal truth of mathematical principles! While physics textbooks become doorstops after Newton changed the game, and chemistry books turn obsolete once we discovered those pesky electrons, math books from ancient Babylon could still help you ace your calculus final.

The Pythagorean theorem hasn't gotten any software updates since 500 BCE, and Euclid's Elements is still torturing high schoolers 2,300 years later. Meanwhile, physicists and chemists are frantically rewriting their textbooks every time someone discovers a new particle or element.

Mathematical truths are eternal—which explains why your professor's lecture notes look like they were carbon-dated from the Mesozoic era.