I'm interested in a list of papers in Math Journals that were celebrated as new discovery but turn out to be sophisticated versions of simpler facts. A brief explanation of the simpler version of the math concept would also be helpful.
For example, Rowland's prime generating sequence turns out to be equivalent to
Given $n\geq2, n\in\mathbb{N}$, the first differences plus 1 of the iteration $f(n) = n + lpf – 1$ is always prime, where lpf means the least prime factor of n. Start with $n=2$ we get $2\to3\to5\to9\to11\to21\to23\to45\to47\to93\to95\to99\to101...$
The above is always true for the simple reason that we keep adding "$lpf - 1$" to the previous term to get the next term. By definition lpf is prime.
Check this out johncanning.net/wp/?p=1863
Mary M. Tai, a Diabetes Researcher devised a "brand-new" method to accurately calculate the area under graphs numerically. Little did she know that her "new" discovery was actually the trapezoid rule, a method for numerical integration known for hundreds of years.