Evolution of the Euler-Maclaurin sum formula

The correspondence between the discrete and the continuous is a fascinating theme in mathematics. The Euler-Maclaurin sum formula, discovered independently and almost contemporaneously by Leonhard Euler (1707–1783) and Colin Maclaurin (1698–1746), in the early 1730s, relates the sum of the values of a function at the integers in the interval [a, b] with its integral over [a, b]. It thus equates a discrete sum with a continuous sum (integral) of a related function.