[Author’s Name]
[Institution’s Name]
Essay on History of Calculus (who discovered Calculus?)
History of Calculus (who discovered Calculus?)
The word calculus has the same root as ‘calcium’ this is because the Romans used little pebbles, generally of limestone, arrayed on boards to do their reckoning. During the middle ages, a calculus came to mean any method of reckoning or problem solving. The subject of this course was once called “the calculus of innitesimals” (Spark Notes, 2003), and was one calculus among many such as the ‘calculus of probabilities’. It has proven to be so useful that nowadays it is simply called ‘the calculus’, although one does occasionally run into references to other calculi.
Calculus is part of a branch of mathematics known as analysis. And the things one analyses in analysis are functions, and the solutions to equations. Mathematicians, over the centuries, had a few problems they had difficulty solving: finding maximum and minimum, area of regions bounded by curves, finding tangents as well as volumes. Mathematicians have tackled them, however, each solution was unique to the problem; a general solution for the infinitely possible problems could not be found. Although the various problems were tackled by different mathematicians, Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz were credited as the inventors of calculus. They developed general concepts which relate to the main problems of calculus, as well as introduced notations.
Historically, there was much debate over whether it was Newton or Leibniz who first ‘invented’ calculus. This argument, between the German Leibniz and the English Newton, was at the heart of a rift in the mathematical community of the two countries. This rift significantly slowed the progress of mathematics, both in Britain and in Europe at large. “It was not until the early 19th century that they were reconciled” (Dunham, 2005). Much of the credit for this goes to the Analytical Society.Newton began his work on calculus at least as early as 1666, giving plenty of time for this to occur, as Leibniz did not begin his work until 1676.....
