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Albert Raez

Mrs. Ramsey

Calculus AB / Period 3

22 May 2017

The True Discoverer of Calculus

The main ideas that are the foundation of calculus have developed over a very long

period of time. Before Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leipzig, the first step of the topics

discovery was made by Greek mathematicians such as Archimedes, then Bonaventura Cavalieri

and Pierre de Fermat both also contributed to the discovery of calculus with their uncovering of

different aspects that shape calculus. Archimedess The Method is one of his earliest surviving

works of Archimedes and it shows his thoughts bold thoughts on infinity's vexing qualities which

would influence both Leipzig and Newton two thousand years later, Cavalieris method of

indivisibles involved determining the size of geometric figures, which is similar to the methods

of integral calculus, and Fermats investigation of maxima and minimas lead to the discovery of

setting the derivative equal to zero to find these values. These contributors all lead to Leipzig and

Newtons breakthrough to the uncovering of calculus. Though Leibniz is one of the originators of

modern calculus, he was accused of plagiarising Newtons work which came prior to his work

and it was Newtons work that influenced his work as well, which is why Sir Isaac Newton is the

true father of calculus.

In 1676, Newton wrote a letter to Leibniz about his mathematical discoveries and to show

him that he made these breakthroughs many years earlier. In the letter, Newton mentioned the

meaning of calculus which is 6accdae13eff7i3l9n4o4qrr4s8t12vx. Aware that others were

seeking to steal his ideas, Newton decided to add this meaning in a coded sentence to not
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reference calculus specially. Newton as well wrote to his rival, Robert Hooke, and stated If I

have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants to show how Hooke is only

gaining the truth by taking knowledge from others. In 1677, Leibniz wrote a letter to Newton

expressing his evaluation of differentials, which is one of the earliest documents of differentials.

Leibniz was able to publish his work earlier than Newton, but as seen in Newtons letter, he had

been working on the discovery of topic years earlier.

In the rise of calculus, I believe that the most interesting fact is that it was not discovered

by a sole mind; it took a collective group of ideas from many mathematicians from a different

centuries to solve the puzzle that is calculus, and this is fascinating to me. The most obscure fact

is whether Leibniz did plagiarize from Newton; though Leibniz was the sole independent

discoverer of calculus, he would not have done it if Newton did not unravel the topic. Though the

argument whether who is discovered calculus is fought to this day, their impact is inimaginable.

Calculus is important to so many different fields, it is considered to be an important subject of

study for both high school and college students, and this is the most important fact as it shows

the impact of both of these mens discovery.

Works Cited

Mathforum.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2017.

<http://mathforum.org/library/topics/svcalc/>.
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Newton vs. Leibniz. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2017.

<http://hist.science.free.fr/storie/IERI/NewtonVoltaireEmilie/Newton%20vs_

%20Leibniz.htm>.

"The Newton-Leibniz controversy over the invention of the calculus." N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May

2017. <http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~sastry/hs323/calculus.pdf>.