Calculus Wars

One of the greatest math clashes of

human history
 Contents
• Why calculus was invented
• Impact of calculus
• People who were involved in the calculus wars
– Newton
– Leibniz
• General life history of Newton & Leibniz
• Work done by Newton
– Influent & methods
• Work done by Leibniz
– Influent & methods
• Problems faced by Newton
• Problems faced by Leibniz
• Deterrents in discussing calculus between Newton & Leibniz
• Calculus Wars
 Necessity of calculus
• End of the Dark Age
– Scientific Reasoning
– Gradual development of science
– Theories explained with math
– Mathematical development
• Algebraic explanation
– Limits are faced
– Larger area of math skills are needed
 Impact of calculus
• Analyzes most of the physical movements of
matters
– Motions in curves
• Heavenly bodies
• Mechanics & Kinematics
• Allowed incredible further progress in science
• Leibniz and Newton both were amazed in
their own invention
• Exceptions are seen in quantum science
 People who were involved in
Calculus Wars

• Newton
– Invented calculus methods in 1665-1671
– Called this method Fluxions and Fluents
• Leibniz
– Invented calculus in 1672 – 1676
– Named it “Calculus”
– Made all the symbols
• Keill
– The strongest supporter of Newton
• Fatio
– First one to attack Leibniz
– But Failed
• Bernoulli
– The strongest supporter of Leibniz
• Royal Society
– All of them in Newton’s side
• Earnest August
– Duke who supported Leibniz
• Collins
– A middleman who allowed Leibniz and Newton to contact each other by mail
during 1670’s
• Huygens
– Leibniz’s early mentor & teacher
• Oldenburg
– German who gave information of mathematical and scientific advances in
England to Leibniz
 Newton’s Background
• Naturally born genius
• Born in a very poor family
• Nearly died during his birth
• Lived with his Grandparents
• Learned Latin
• Learned mixing chemicals
• Went to Cambridge University
• Hard working student
• Ridiculous experiments
• Invented better x38 telescope
• Accepted to Royal Society
• Becomes the president of R.S.
 Leibniz’s Background
• Naturally born genius
• Born in Germany
• Born in a honorable family
• Slow mathematical learning
– Scholastic tradition of Germany
– Learning Aristotle and Logic
• Relied upon the method of self-
teaching
• Military strategist in France
• University of Leipzig
• Huygens brings him into the math
world
• Invented a calculating machine
– Addition, Subtraction, Division,
Multiplication
• Accepted to Royal Society
• Thought everything can be analyzed
mathematically
 Work done by Newton
• Newton’s way to invent calculus
– Ideas from Galileo, movement of heavenly matters
– Wallis, Work on infinite series
– Combination of Algebra and Geometry
• Breakthrough
– Different approach done by Newton
– Movement of the matters: Geometrical shape
 Work done by Leibniz
• He read many works of great mathematicians
– Descartes
– Cavalieri, Geometria
– Toricelli, methods for finding areas under parabolic curves
– Pascal, work on indivisibles and infinitesimals
– Slues, construction of tangents to a point on a curve
– Hudde, Found maxima and minima
• Terms and Symbols of calculus
• Name “Calculus”
• Deep research and study in short period
• Calculus further advanced than Newton
 Problems - Newton
• Plague
– Hampered Newton in inventing calculus
• Optics, opticks
– Defending Hooke’s attack
• Cost of Publishing
– High cost of printing
 Problems - Leibniz
• Wars
– Made Leibniz to move during his studies
– Able to settle in Paris by the help of Huygens
• Germany
– Was not really able to know what was going on in
England
– Education system
• Cost of publishing
• Supporters
– Not a lot of supporters
 Deterrents
• Hooke
– Bothered Newton too much
– Made Newton suspicious about Leibniz
• Newton’s cautious mind
• Collins
– Did not reveal everything to Leibniz about Newton’s Method
– Mistakes made
• Newton
– Bothered by opticks
– Too much Pride
• Time Period
– No instant communication
• Newton’s response a year later
Calculus War
 Calculus War Branchis Tochrnoe

The war between Leibniz and Newton over the

credit of Calculus which is also known as ‘Calculus
war’ started in 1708.
1. One of the supporters of Leibniz, Bernouliia
posted a math question called ‘Branchis
Tochrnoe’ on the journals to challenge
Newton’s calculus abilities.
2. Upset by this challenge from Leibniz, Newton’s
strong advocator and a old friend, Fatio, stood
up for Newton and claimed that Newton has a
credit of the invention of Calculus.
3. However this wasn’t successful, as Newton kept
silence during Fatio’s attack.
 Calculus War
Hooke
4. Fatio’s attack ended up as a complete failure.
5. Newton was able to gain a high political
status after Hooke’s death, he came a
president of Royal society.
6. Keill became really aggressive and accused
Leibniz of plagiarism
7. Leibniz wanted Royal society to be the
judge of this incident.
8. However, this turned out to be a big
mistake of Leibniz, since most of the
members of Royal society were friends of
Newton. They published a book called
commercium Epistolicum which basically
found in Newton’s favor.
 Calculus War
9. Leibniz was outraged and he showed hatred against Newton. He tried
to attack Newton scientifically by saying that Newton’s gravity theory
is a false statement.
10. However, this backfired what Leibniz was trying to do, it was proven
that Newton’s gravity theory was right.
11. Because of the pressure and stress from the war, his health went
bad and Leibniz died in a pain.