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1.

0 HISTORY CONTRIBUTIONS BY SIR ISAAC NEWTON AND GOTTFRIED


WILHELM LEIBNIZ IN CALCULUS

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Isaac Newton were geniuses who lived quite
different lives and invented quite different versions of the infinitesimal calculus, each
to suit his own interests and purposes. Newton discovered his fundamental ideas in
1664–1666, while a student at Cambridge University. During a good part of these
years the University was closed due to the plague, and Newton worked at his family
home in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire. However, his ideas were not published until 1687.
Leibniz, in France and Germany, on the other hand, began his own breakthroughs in
1675, publishing in 1684. The importance of publication is illustrated by the fact that
scientific communication was still sufficiently uncoordinated that it was possible for the
work of Newton and Leibniz to proceed independently for many years without
reciprocal knowledge and input. Disputes about the priority of their discoveries raged
for centuries, fed by nationalistic tendencies in England and Germany.

Newton made contributions to all branches of mathematics then studied, but is


especially famous for his solutions to the contemporary problems in analytical
geometry of drawing tangents to curves (differentiation) and defining areas bounded
by curves (integration). Not only did Newton discover that these problems were
inverse to each other, but he discovered general methods of resolving problems of
curvature, embraced in his "method of fluxions" and "inverse method of fluxions",
respectively equivalent to Leibniz's later differential and integral calculus. Newton
used the term "fluxion" (from Latin meaning "flow") because he imagined a quantity
"flowing" from one magnitude to another. Fluxions were expressed algebraically, as
Leibniz's differentials were, but Newton made extensive use also (especially in the
Principia) of analogous geometrical arguments.

Fluxions were introduced in the middle of 1665, perhaps inspired by Barrow's lectures
on motion of the previous year. The point of using motion to define fluxions probably
was to give a better foundation than the one based on infinitesimals. But infinitesimals

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were not excluded. He was quite explicit in using and accepting infinitesimals: In
October 1666 he wrote:

Hence I observe. First y't those termes ever vanish w'ch are not multiplyed by o, they
being y'e propounded equation. Secondly those termes also vanish in w'ch o is of
more y'n one dimension, because they are infinitely lesse y'n those in w'ch o is but of
one dimension. Thirdly y'e still remaining termes, being divided by o will have y't form
w'ch (...) they should have (...)

Here, he uses the word "infinitely" in a very uncritical way. In June 1669 he mentioned:

Nor am I afraid to talk of a unity in points or infinitely small lines in as much as


geometers now consider proportions in these while using indivisible methods.

Thus he takes comfort in the other geometers' habits (talking of infinitely small lines),
and uses that as an excuse for having these habits himself. As late as 1671--2, the
infinitesimals are still there: in the following, I will use the notation x* instead of
Newton's dotted x. The moments of the fluent quantities (that is, their indefinitely small
parts, by addition of which they increase during each infinitely small period of time) are
as their speeds of flow. We see clearly that at this point infinitely small quantities
played an important part in Newton's method of fluxions.

In 1680, in his Geometria Curvilinea, Newton started to look at fluxions in a new


way, in an attempt to avoid infinitesimals:

Those who have taken the measure of curvilinear figures have usually viewed them
as made up of infinitely many infinitely-small parts. I, in fact, shall consider them as
generated by growing, arguing that they are greater, equal or less according as they
grow more swiftly, equally swiftly or more slowly from their beginning. And this
swiftness of growth I shall call the fluxion of a quantity.

This is not different from his previous definitions. But earlier, he had used infinitely
small quantities to find these fluxions. Now he tried to do without them:

Fluxions of quantities are in the first ratio of their nascent parts or, what exactly the
same is, in the last ratio of those parts as they vanish by defluxion.
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Newton's motive seems clear: he wants to find a ``more geometrical'' - meaning more
rigorous - method. But what are these "last sums and ratios of vanishing quantities"?
Newton saw that this could be difficult, and tried to explain. However, it is difficult to
understand Newton's point. The exact speed with which the body reaches its last
position has to be zero - otherwise it would continue beyond this last position.Newton
had some idea of a limit concept here, but the difference between an idea and a fully
explained and understood concept is large.

The theory of fluxions yielded the heuristic methods of the calculus. Those methods
were to be justified rigorously by the theory of ultimate ratios. The theory of
infinitesimals was to abbreviate the rigorous proof, and Newton thought that he had
shown the abbreviations to be permissible. Rather than competing for the same
position, the three theories were designed for quite distinct tasks.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was the one who discover product rule. It was during this
period in Paris that Leibniz developed the basic features of his version of the calculus.
In 1673 he was still struggling to develop a good notation for his calculus and his first
calculations were clumsy. On 21 November 1675 he wrote a manuscript using the ∫  f
(x) dx notation for the first time. In the same manuscript the product rule for
differentiation is given. By autumn 1676 Leibniz discovered the familiar d(xn) = nxn-1dx
for both integral and fractional n. He introduced several notations used to this day, for
instance the integral sign ∫ representing an elongated S, from the Latin word summa
and the d used for differentials, from the Latin word differentia. This cleverly
suggestive notation for the calculus is probably his most enduring mathematical
legacy. Leibniz did not publish anything about his calculus until 1684. The product rule
of differential calculus is still called "Leibniz's law". In addition, the theorem that tells
how and when to differentiate under the integral sign is called the Leibniz integral rule.

Leibniz’s mathematical investigations were thus merely part of a truly grand


plan, and this explains his focus on developing useful new notation and theoretical
methods, rather than specific results. Indeed, it is his notation and language for the

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calculus that we use today, rather than Newton’s. He sought and found a “calculus” for
infinitesimal geometry based on new symbols and rules. Second, Leibniz studied the
relationship between difference sequences and sums, and then an infinitesimal
version helped suggest to him the essential features of the calculus.

Most modern historians believe that Newton and Leibniz developed


infinitesimal calculus independently, although with very different notations.
Occasionally it has been suggested that Newton published almost nothing about it
until 1693, and did not give a full account until 1704, while Leibniz began publishing a
full account of his methods in 1684. (Leibniz's notation and "differential Method",
nowadays recognized as much more convenient notations, were adopted by
continental European mathematicians, and by British mathematicians after 1820)

Newton's work on pure mathematics was virtually hidden from all but his
correspondents until 1704, when he published, with Opticks, a tract on the quadrature
of curves (integration) and another on the classification of the cubic curves. His
Cambridge lectures, delivered from about 1673 to 1683, were published in 1707.

Newton wrote a tract on fluxions in October 1666. This was a work which was
not published at the time but seen by many mathematicians and had a major influence
on the direction the calculus was to take. Newton thought of a particle tracing out a
curve with two moving lines which were the coordinates. The horizontal velocity x' and
the vertical velocity y' were the fluxions of x and y associated with the flux of time. The
fluents or flowing quantities were x and y themselves. With this fluxion notation y'/x'
was the tangent to f(x, y) = 0.

In his 1666 tract Newton discusses the converse problem, given the
relationship between x and y'/x' find y. Hence the slope of the tangent was given for
each x and when y'/x' = f(x) then Newton solves the problem by antidifferentiation. He
also calculated areas by antidifferentiation and this work contains the first clear
statement of the Fundamental Theorem of the Calculus.

Newton had problems publishing his mathematical work. Barrow was in some
way to blame for this since the publisher of Barrow's work had gone bankrupt and
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publishers were, after this, wary of publishing mathematical works. Newton's work on
Analysis with infinite series was written in 1669 and circulated in manuscript. It was
not published until 1711. Similarly his Method of fluxions and infinite series was written
in 1671 and published in English translation in 1736. The Latin original was not
published until much later.

In these two works Newton calculated the series expansion for sin x and cos x
and the expansion for what was actually the exponential function, although this
function was not established until Euler introduced the present notation ex.

Leibniz learnt much on a European tour which led him to meet Huygens in
Paris in 1672. He also met Hooke and Boyle in London in 1673 where he bought
several mathematics books, including Barrow's works. Leibniz was to have a lengthy
correspondence with Barrow. On returning to Paris Leibniz did some very fine work on
the calculus, thinking of the foundations very differently from Newton.

Newton considered variables changing with time. Leibniz thought of variables x,


y as ranging over sequences of infinitely close values. He introduced dx and dy as
dy
differences between successive values of these sequences. Leibniz knew that /dx
gives the tangent but he did not use it as a defining property.

For Newton integration consisted of finding fluents for a given fluxion so the fact
that integration and differentiation were inverses was implied. Leibniz used integration
as a sum, in a rather similar way to Cavalieri. He was also happy to use 'infinitesimals'
dx and dy where Newton used x' and y' which were finite velocities. Of course neither
Leibniz nor Newton thought in terms of functions, however, but both always thought in
terms of graphs. For Newton the calculus was geometrical while Leibniz took it
towards analysis.

Leibniz was very conscious that finding a good notation was of fundamental
importance and thought a lot about it. Newton, on the other hand, wrote more for him
and, as a consequence, tended to use whatever notation he thought of on the day.
Leibniz's notation of d and ∫ highlighted the operator aspect which proved important in
later developments. By 1675 Leibniz had settled on the notation
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∫ y dy = y2/2

written exactly as it would be today. His results on the integral calculus were published
in 1684 and 1686 under the name 'calculus summatorius', the name integral calculus
was suggested by Jacob Bernoulli in 1690.

Leibniz and Newton had very different views of calculus in that Newton’s was
based on limits and concrete reality, while Leibniz focused more on the infinite and the
abstract (Struik, 1948). However, regardless of the divergent paths these two scholars
chose to venture down, the question of who took the first step remained the primary
issue of debate.

In the 1690s Newton's friends proclaimed the priority of Newton's methods of


fluxions. Supporters of Leibniz asserted that he had communicated the differential
method to Newton, although Leibniz had claimed no such thing. Newtonians then
asserted, rightly, that Leibniz had seen papers of Newton's during a London visit in
1676; in reality, Leibniz had taken no notice of material on fluxions. A violent dispute
sprang up, part public, part private, extended by Leibniz to attacks on Newton's theory
of gravitation and his ideas about God and creation; it was not ended even by
Leibniz's death in 1716. The dispute delayed the reception of Newtonian science on
the Continent, and dissuaded British mathematicians from sharing the researches of
Continental colleagues for a century.

Unaware that Newton was reported to have discovered similar methods,


Leibniz discovered “his” calculus in Paris between 1673 and 1676 (Ball, 1908). By
1676, Leibniz realized that he was onto something “big”; he just didn’t realize that
Newton was on to the same big discovery because Newton was remaining somewhat
tight lipped about his breakthroughs. In fact, it was actually the delayed publication of
Newton’s findings that caused the entire controversy. Leibniz published the first
account of differential calculus in 1684 and then published the explanation of integral
calculus in 1686 (Boyer, 1968 ).

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Newton did not publish his findings until 1687. Yet evidence shows that
Newton discovered his theories of fluxional calculus in 1665 and 1666, after having
studied the work of other mathematicians such as Barrows and Wallis (Struik, 1948).
Evidence also shows that Newton was the first to establish the general method called
the "theory of fluxions" was the first to state the fundamental theorem of calculus and
was also the first to explore applications of both integration and differentiation in a
single work (Struik, 1948). Newton, who was often reluctant to publish his writing, was
finally coaxed into printing up his work with the urging of his mathematician friends.
This proved too little too late for his most beloved creation, calculus. Although he had
discovered calculus in 1666, he did not publish its description until the year 1693.
During that time, a German mathematician named Leibniz had created an identical
mathematical work to calculus and published these results in Germany in 1684. As a
result, Leibniz was referred to as calculus' creator, and when this news came to
England Newton was enraged. While the debate raged on and both sides about who
honestly claimed the rights to calculus, all communications broke down between
Germany's mathematicians and England's mathematicians. As a result France used
the work done by Newton and Leibniz and perfected calculus and advanced
mathematics in their country.

Starting in 1699, other members of the Royal Society (of which Newton was a
member) accused Leibniz of plagiarism, and the dispute broke out in full force in 1711.
Newton's Royal Society proclaimed in a study that it was Newton who was the true
discoverer and labeled Leibniz a fraud. This study was cast into doubt when it was
later found that Newton himself wrote the study's concluding remarks on Leibniz. Thus
began the bitter Newton vs Leibniz calculus controversy, which marred the lives of
both Newton and Leibniz until the latter's death in 1716.

Leibniz shortly before his death admitted in a letter to Conti that in 1676 Collins
had shown him some Newtonian papers, but implied that they were of little or no
value, - presumably he referred to Newton's letters of June 13 and Oct. 24, 1676, and
to the letter of Dec. 10, 1672, on the method of tangents, extracts from which
accompanied the letter of June 13, - but it is remarkable that, on the receipt of these

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letters, Leibniz should have made no further inquiries, unless he was already aware
from other sources of the method followed by Newton (Ball, 1908).

In 1715, just a year before Leibniz death, the Royal Society handed down their
verdict crediting Sir Isaac Newton with the discovery of calculus. It was also stated
that Leibniz was guilty of plagiarism because of certain letters he was supposed to
have seen (Ball, 1908). It later became known that these accusations were false, and
both men were then given credit, but not until after Leibniz had already died. In fact,
the controversy over who really deserved the credit for discovering calculus continued
to rage on long after Leibniz’ death in 1716 (Struik, 1948). Newton and his associates
even tried to get the ambassadors of the London diplomatic corps to review his old
manuscripts and letters, in the hopes that they would endorse the finding of the Royal
Society that Leibniz had plagiarized his findings regarding calculus. Another argument
on the side promoting the idea of Leibniz as a plagiarist was the fact that he used an
alternate set of symbols. Leibniz specifically set out to develop a more meticulous
notation system than Newton’s, and he developed the integral sign ( ∫ ) and the 'd'
sign, which are still used today (O’Connor, 1996) However this action was argued by
many to be merely a way for Leibniz to “cover his tracks” so as not to get accused of
stealing Newton’s material (Boyer, 1968). The fact that the method was more efficient
was considered to be an ancillary benefit. The fact is that Leibniz sent letters to
Newton outlining his own presentation of his own methods, and these letters focused
quite stringently upon the subject of tangents and curves. Because Newton had been
approaching calculus primarily in regards to its applications to physics, he purported
curves to be the creation of the motion of points while perceiving velocity to be the
primary derivative. Conversely, the calculus of Leibniz was applied more to
discoveries in geometry made by scholars such as Descartes and Pascal. Since
"Leibniz' approach was geometrical," the notation of the differential calculus and many
of the general rules for calculating derivatives are still used today, while Newton's
approach, which has in many aspects, fallen by the wayside, was "primarily
cinematical" (Struik, 1948).

With modern controversies covering such volatile topics as abortion and gun
control, a debate over who discovered calculus may seem somewhat trivial by
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contemporary standards. However at the time, this was a serious issue that not only
involved matters of mathematical discovery but also matters of national pride and
allegiance. What is important to keep in perspective is that no matter who actually
discovered calculus first, both Newton and Leibniz made great contributions to the
advancement of mathematical processes, and both deserve credit for that.

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2.0 THEORY OF DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION BY SIR ISAAC NEWTON
AND GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ

Sir Isaac Newton

 Fluxions - calculus and the fundamental theorem

Newton developed algorithms for calculating fluxions defined in modern terms as

To solve the problems: a) Find the speed of notion of any fluent.

b) Given the speed find the length of space at any time t.

He assumes a form f(x,y) = 0 and produces the differential equation using the


procedure of Hudde.

His method builds into it the product rule for derivatives. Then, he justifies this rule by
defining the moment

substituting and resolving the terms àla Fermat. Note the term o is viewed as infinitely
small.

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To resolve the “length of space” question, Newton reverses the procedure if possible.
This is an antiderivative approach. Otherwise he resorts to power series.

Example. Consider the equation

is resolved as

Applying the binomial theorem we get for the plus root

Hence one solution is

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Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

 Product rule ( Leibniz’s Law )

Gottfried Leibniz is credited with the discovery of this rule which he called Leibniz's
Law. He demonstrated it using differentials. Product rule (also called Leibniz's law;
see derivation) is a formula used to find the derivatives of products of functions. Here
is Leibniz's argument. Let u(x) and v(x) be two differentiable functions of x. Then the
differential of uv is

Since the term du·dv is "negligible" (compared to du and dv), Leibniz concluded that

and this is indeed the differential form of the product rule. If we divide through by the
differential dx, we obtain

which can also be written in "prime notation" as

Or

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Generalized Leibniz Rule

is known as the Leibniz rule. Below are various ways it can be generalized .

 Higher derivatives

Let   be real (or complex) functions defined on an open interval of . If   and   

are   times differentiable, then

where is the binomial coefficient


 Generalized Leibniz rule for more functions

Let   be real (or complex) valued functions that are defined on an open

interval of  . If  are   times differentiable, then

where   is the multinomial coefficient.

 Leibniz rule for multi-indices

If   are smooth functions defined on an open set of  , and   is


a multi-index, then

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where   is a multi-index.

3.0 APPLICATION OF DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION

When we learn about differentiation and integration, we might not realize how
much these two theories can be applied and used in everyday life. Some of us are
wondering why we should learn about differentiation and integration in our syllabus.
Actually there are a lot of things that we have to used differentiation and integration
especially in engineering and science field.

In the era when Isaac Newton lived, one of the biggest problems they had to
face was poor navigation at sea.
Before calculus was developed, the stars were vital for navigation. Shipwrecks
occurred because the ship was not where the captain thought it should be. That was
because they had not a good enough understanding of how the earth, stars and
planets moved with respect to each other. Differentiation and integration was
developed to improve this understanding.

Newton made numerous and remarkable applications of his method of fluxion.

He determined maxima and minima, tangents to curves, curvature of curves, points of

inflection, convexity and concavity of curves using the method of fluxion. After

conceiving the method of fluxions, Newton adapted them to the quadrature of curves.

Furthermore, Newton makes it quite clear when he would find our conventional
view of gravity to be absurd and notional. As far as he is concerned the Earth has no
gravity. Today's conventional view of gravity lacks a mechanism and continues to
ignore that fact that you can't have something in a vacuum. By postulating the fluxion,
Newton dispels the notion of outer space as a vacuum and the absurdity of matter
emitting gravity into infinity.

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Mathematicians likes to generalize things, and there are several
generalizations of the product rule, each in its own context. When Leibniz introduce
about product rule, it is used to define what is called a derivation, not vice versa. The
product rule can be extends to scalar multiplication, dot products, and cross products
of vector functions. This rule tells us how to compute the derivative of a product of two
functions in terms of the original functions and their derivatives. Besides, he apply this
rule to compute the derivative of a product of polynomials without having to first
evaluate the product of the polynomials, which can often save us a lot of work. We
can also use the product rule to extend the power rule to negative powers of x.

Differential calculus can be considered as mathematics of motion, growth and


change where there is a motion, growth and change. Whenever there are variable
forces producing acceleration, differential calculus is the right mathematics to apply.
Applications of derivatives are used to represent and interprets the rate at which
quantities change with respect to another variable.

Apart from that, differentiation can help us solve many types of real-world
problems for example to determine the maximum and minimum values of particular
functions where we can use these values to calculate the cost, strength, amount of
material used in a building and their profit and loss in making the building. However,
before we find the maximum and minimum values, we have to find the gradient in
order to determine the region of increase and the region of decrease of a function.
After acquiring the knowledge of gradients and convexity of a curve, then we can find
the turning points.

Besides, using the theory of differentiation, we can find the rate of changes for
example in an oil tanker, the profit of a company each year and the rate of water

dy
leaking from an inverted cone. Therefore, the meaning that is the rate of change of
dx
y with respect to x should be taught in engineering field as it is very important for the
engineers to calculate the rate of changes in their plan of buildings. We can also use
the rate of changes to calculate the rate of changes of the slope of the original
function for the moving objects for example cars and motorcycles. An economist may
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also use the rate of changes if he wants to study how investment changes with
variation in interest rates.

Differentiation also can be used to find the approximation values of a function

dx
close to special values and estimate simple error in the form by differentials.
x
Approximation values are very important especially to find the volumes of different
kind of shapes and in the process of manufacturing mechanical clocks where error
can be made in producing the length of the pendulum of the clock.

Furthermore, in primary school, we learned how to find areas of shapes with


straight sides for example to find the area of a triangle or rectangle. But how we can
find the areas when the sides are curved? In order to solve this problem, we use the
formula of integration to find the area under a curves and area between two curves.
Besides, to find the volume of an object with curved sides for example to make wine
barrels we use integration to find the volume of solid of revolution. Many solid objects,
especially those made on a lathe, have a circular cross-section and curved sides.
When we learn about calculus, we will know how to find the volume of such objects
using integration.

All of us also knew that electric charges have a force between them that varies
depending on the amount of charge and the distance between the charges. In this
case, we use integration to calculate the work done when charges are separated. We
can also use integration to find the force of the liquid pressure where the force by
liquid pressure varies depending on the shape of the object and its depth. Besides,
average value of a curve can be calculated using integration.

From all of these cases above, we can solve the problem by considering the
simple case first. Usually this means the area or volume has straight sides. Then we
extend the straight-sided case to consider curved sides cases. At this time, we need to
use integration because we have curved sides and cannot use the simple formulas
any more.

16
Thus, from these situations we know how much the theory of differentiation and
integration are useful in our everyday life. Without these two theories, we can not build
a building, reduces the efficiency of hard drives and other computer components and
make it difficult to run a great company. Therefore, we have to be thankful to the two
genius mathematicians, Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for bringing
these two amazing theories in our life and make our life become easier and more
comfortable.

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19
INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION

By : Syarafina binti Mohd Salim


IC Number : 900917-06-5660

When I first read the instruction given by Madam Farida on 9 August 2010, I am
very excited to do the task. This is because I never know even a little about the history
of calculus especially in the integration and differentiation. Since my high school, my
teachers only teach me how to answer the exam question and the concept or the
formula. They never touched about the history of the differentiation and integration.
However, sometimes I also get curious where they get such this interesting
mathematics topic. How can they know to calculate it? So, I believe after finished this
task, my question will be answered.

First and foremost, my group and I went to the library to get the information
about integration and differentiation. We need to know at least two mathematicians
who contribute in calculus, their history, theory and the application in daily life. We try
to find calculus book. Unfortunately, there is no calculus book in the rack. We got
puzzled. We try to find in general mathematics book but there is no information about
mathematician. As a solution, we search from the websites first as it is the most easy
way to find the information. From that, we know there were many mathematicians who
contribute in calculus. But the most famous mathematicians were Sir Isaac Newton
and Leibniz. Then, we search for the information in the red spot since there was no
calculus book in the outside rack. We were lucky because there were a lot of
information we got in the red spot.

Besides that, we also got some problem in sketching graph since I am not
understood well about graph sketching. We had tried to do the question but the
answer was wrong. So, we decided to study about the topics and ask madam Faridah

20
the things we don’t know. After struggled almost one day, we finally managed to
sketch the right graph. I am very happy because we got it with our own try.

In this task, I had identified that our strength is from the sources we got to make
the report. We had the information from many type of resources such as
encyclopedias, books and websites. For our weakness, I found that we cannot make a
good chronology about the history of the contributions of the mathematicians detailed.
I only stated generally topic they discover even though I believed there is a chronology
when they got the ideas and they expand it until it becomes easier like we use today.
However, I know this little weakness can be improve if we were given a little bit more
times since we don’t have much time to do this assignment because we have a
program.

In a nutshell, I am satisfied with this task especially the moment I when the task
was in progress. I got a lot of new knowledge and experience. This task had teach me
that we can’t only study the things, but we must know where is there come from. i am
pleasure to get other knowledgeable task like this in the future. Thank you.

21
INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION

By : NorJamilah Ab Rahman
IC Number : 910902-11-5070

On 9th August 2010, I was given the briefing of this Mathematics’ assignment. It
was an assignment which must do in group of three. For this assignment, we need to
make research about mathematicians. We need to find at least two mathematicians
regards the invention especially in differentiation and integration. In this assignment,
my group members and I need to explore the history, theory and application of
differentiation and integration that was introduced by the mathematicians. Beside that,
we are also given one question about graph sketching.

First and foremost, praise to God for giving my group members and I a good
health and safety while finishing this Mathematics’ assignment for this semester.
Finally, after 2 weeks, my group members and I had finished completely our
Mathematics’ assignment. During finishing this assignment, I found many problems,
weakness and also strength during doing it.

I had face many problems when do this assignment. First, I can’t get any
suitable idea which mathematicians should be chosen. There are many
mathematicians that contributed to differentiation and integration. So, I overcome this
problem by discuss it with my group members to decide who we will choose. After I
made a discussion with my group members, finally my group members and I manage
to find suitable mathematicians who are Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz
Wilhelm.

Besides that, in the beginning to do this assignment, I found that my group


members and I do not know how to manage our time . But, due to our cooperation and

22
our tolerance, I had managed the time very well. From this situation, it teaches me to
appreciate the time that we have. My group members and I had organized and
planned well about when and how to do this assignment properly.

Although our lecturer, Madam Farida had guide us how to do this assignment,
but we still need to find another information about the Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried
Leibniz Wilhelm. So, my group members and I find the information of these
mathematicians from different sources like books, encyclopedia and internet. We got
many pages that related to these two mathematicians from internet but, we need to
choose the suitable pages regarding to Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm
Leibniz. Then, we found that there are not much books about calculus (differentiation
and integration) at library. We just manage to find a few books but it does not have
much information in it. So, we also try to get some information about these two
mathematicians from encyclopedia.

Absolutely there is not only the problem and weaknesses that I found when
doing this assignment. I also noticed that, through this assignment, it has a benefits
and strength. Through this assignment; research about history, theory and application
of differentiation and integration by Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz Wilhelm
made me more understand about the differentiation and integration. Before this, the
topic of differentiation and integration are my favourite topics because it is very
interesting topics to me. Furthermore, before this I have learned about it at school.
When make the research about these two mathematicians, I found that there are lots
of differentiation and integration’s concept that was introduced by them. Before this, I
did not know about all these concept but now all this knowledge of integration and
differentiation is very useful for me and I can use it in my daily life.

Then the sweetest thing during finishing this assignment is my relationship


between my group members and I had become closer because we had spent many
times together to discuss about our assignment. We also discuss together about
sketching the graph. The graph is quite difficult for us. So, we discuss it together in
group.

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In conclusion, I found that from this assignment; research about differentiation
and integration by Isaac and Leibniz, it helps me to improve my knowledge about
these topics. Then, I can know who are the creator differentiation and integration.
Lastly, thank you to all people that help me directly or indirectly during I finishing my
assignment. Thanks a lot to my parents, friends, and especially to my beloved
lecturer, Madam Farida that give me support all the time.

INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION

By : Hazirah Mohd Abdul Wahid


IC Number : 910721-11-5338

In my final semester of PPISMP Math, I think I was been given a different kind
of coursework for my core subject, Mathematics 2 from my previous semesters. The
first task asks me to make a report about two mathematicians that contribute to the
invention of calculus especially according to my syllabus that are integration and
differentiation. My impressions when I read the task, I thought it was simpler than my
last semester’s assignment when we had to do the experiment to show the theory of
probability.

When I went for the library to find the resources and make a research through
the internet, then I realized it was quite difficult because there is not much history
about how the mathematicians found the theory and their application. Usually, there
was only small part in those books where they talk about the mathematicians and of
course it is not good enough for us. However, my group members and I keep on
looking and try to find as many information as we can so that we can make a great
report about their contribution.

Finally, we decided to choose Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
as our two mathematicians because of their amazing theories and major contributions
in the introduction of calculus. Before I done this task, actually I don’t know anything
about them and the facts that what I learnt in my class today about calculus was
introduce by these two great mathematicians. So, I am very glad and excited as I got

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a lot of knowledge from this coursework where I had the chance to know both of them
closer from many aspects.

From my opinion, the history of their live, the theory they had invented and the
application from their theory should be published among the students either in the
school or in university. I am sure this will inspire the students to know how these
people can found such a great theories that had made our life becomes easier. Just
take a look everything around us and they will realize how important the calculus to us
where we even can not build a building without using calculus.

My second task is to do the graph sketching from the question given. This task
is tougher as we can’t find the right solution for the question because it is quite
different from the questions we usually done in the class. We had to do research,
learn about it from the internet and asked experienced people like our Mathematics 2
lecturer. Besides, we also made a discussion among the groups and try to share our
knowledge together about this graph sketching.

In order to make a good graph sketching, we applied all the formula and ways
that our lecturer had been teaching us in the class. Finally, we come out with a graph
that we had done it all the best as we can. I gain knowledge again in the process of
making a complicated graph that I will use this knowledge when I am learning or
teaching my students in the future.

As a conclusion, I think we should be grateful because our two mathematicians


Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz who had come with the great ideas
and theories which make our life journey become smooth, easier and interesting. In
order to get the right theories, they had to go through a lot of problems and sacrifice
many things. Besides, these theories took a very long time and had to face many
changes to become as simple as what we learn today. Therefore, we need to
understand about calculus further and applied in our daily life such as when we want
to find the areas, volume or the profit in a company so that the knowledge will not be
wasted.

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