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The History Of Calculus

What is Calculus?

From Latin, calculus, a small stone used for counting

A branch of mathematics including limits, derivatives,
integrals, and infinite sums
Used in science, economics, and engineering
Builds on algebra, geometry, and trig with two major branches
differential calculus and integral calculus

Ancient History

In the earliest years, integral calculus was being used as

an idea, but was not yet formalized into a system.

Calculating volumes and areas can be traced to the

Egyptian Moscow papyrus (1820 BC).

Ancient Greeks

Greek mathematician Eudoxus (408-355 BC) used the

method of exhaustion, a precursor to limits, to calculate
area and volume
Archimedes (287-212 BC) continued Eudoxus idea and
invented heuristics, similar to integration, to calculate area.

Medieval History
In about 1000 AD, Islamic mathematician, Ibn alHaytham (Alhacen) derived a formula for the sum of
the fourth powers of an arithmetic progression, later
used to perform integration.
In the 12th century, Indian mathematician Bhaskara
II developed an early derivative. He described an
early form of what will later be Rolles Theorem
Also in the 12th century, Persian mathematician Saraf
al-Din al-Tusi discovered the derivative of a cubic
polynomial

Modern History

Bonaventure Cavalieri argued that volumes be

computed by the sums of the volumes of cross
sections. (This was similar to Archimedess).
However, Cavalieris work was not well respected,
so his infinitesimal quantities were not accepted at
first.

Modern History

Formal study combined Cavalieris infinitesimal

quantities with finite differences in Europe. This
was done by John Wallis, Isaac Barrow, and James
Gregory
Barrow and Gregory would later prove the 2nd
Fundamental Theorem of Calculus in 1675.

Enter Newton

Isaac Newton (English) is credited with many of the

beginnings of calculus. He introduced product rule, chain rule
and higher derivatives to solve physics problems.
He replaced the calculus of infinitesimals with geometric
representations.
He used calculus to explain many physics problems in his
book Principia Mathematica, however he had developed many
other calculus explanations that he did not formally publish.

and Leibniz

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (German) systemized the ideas of

calculus of infinitesimals. Unlike Newton, Leibniz provided
a clear set of rules to manipulate infinitesimals.
Leibniz spent time determining appropriate symbols and paid
more attention to formality.
His work leads to formulas for product and chain rule as well
as rules for derivatives and integrals.

Newton vs. Leibniz

There was much controversy over who (and thus

which country) should be credited with calculus
since both worked at the same time.
Newton derived his results first, but Leibniz
published first.

Newton vs. Leibniz

Newton claimed Leibniz stole ideas from

unpublished notes written to the Royal Society.
This divided English-speaking math and continental
math for many years.

Newton vs. Leibniz

Today it is known that Newton began his work with

derivatives and Leibniz began with integrals. Both
arrived at the same conclusions independently.
The name of the study was given by Leibniz,
Newton called it the science of fluxions.

Since then

There have been many contributions to build upon Newton

and Leibniz.
Calculus was put on a more rigorous footing by
mathematicians such as Cauchy, Riemann, and Weierstrass
Calculus has also been generalized for the Euclidean and
complex space.

In conclusion

We will stand on the shoulders of those that came

before us and study their findings to possibly apply
to our modern world!