shoulders of giants

In the 16th century, while investigating the solution of cubic equations, Cardano found square roots of negative numbers in his solutions. This led to the use of complex numbers. It turned out, hundreds of years later, that complex numbers were very convenient in the analysis of alternating current. Complex numbers make the analysis of AC easier,

One argued that such application of complex number could not be called as unintended consequence contrary to one podcast produced by BBC. Being a non native speaker or simply lazy to debate about this semantic I thought that such connection is fascinating. I am sure that Cardono would not have a slightest idea that his complex number would someday be useful to analyze alternating current, mechanical vibrations and problems in plane elasticity. 

I guess this line of connection between unrelated things happens more often these days. Yesterday I wrote about drone that used Iphone technologies. Reminds of Sir Isaac Newton's famous quote: "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants".

In any case we could expect that the advance of technology would be accelerated as the age of internet the speed of information spread would be much quicker.