Newton and Leibniz

CHAPTER 16
 DISCUSSANT

Math 1 -1

Jessica Marie Nathaniel

Erguiza Ceralde

Ella Grace Barboza Diezelyn Patrick

Magalong Pacleb
Math 1 -
2
 01
Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
• He was a Mathematician ,
astronomer, physicist and
natural philosopher.

• He is recognized as one of the

most influential scientists of all
time and as a key figure in the
scientific revolution.
 Newton succeeded in
consolidating and generalizing all
the material on tangents and
areas developed by his
seventeenth-century predecessors
into the magnificent problem-
solving tool exhibited in the
thousand-page calculus textbooks
of our own day.
 02
Power Series
1. Newton was especially struck by the analogy
between the infinite decimals of arithmetic and the
infinite degree “polynomials” that we call power
series.
2. Newton proceeded, then, at the beginning of
the Treatise, to show by example the advantage of
infinite variable sequences, or power series, which
he considered simply as generalized polynomials
with which he could operate just as with ordinary
polynomials.
1. The reduction of “affected equations,” that is,
the solving of an equation f (x, y) = 0 for y in terms
of a power series in x, is somewhat more difficult,
Newton believed, because the method of solving
equations f (y) = 0 numerically was not completely
familiar.
 03
The Binomial Theorem
1. Newton’s discovery of power series came out of his
reading of Wallis’s Arithmetica infinitorum, especially
the section on determining the area of a circle. In fact, he
got out of Wallis’s work more than Wallis had put in. In
considering areas, Wallis had always looked for a
specific numerical value, or the ratio of two such values,
because he wanted to determine the area under a curve
between two fixed values, say, 0 and 1. Newton realized
that one could see further patterns if one calculated
areas from 0 to an arbitrary value x, namely, if one
considered area under a curve as a function of the
varying endpoint of the interval.
1. Thus, in looking at the same problem as Wallis of
calculating the area of a circle, he considered a sequence
of curves like those of Wallis, that is, the curves y = (1−
x2)n. But Newton then tabulated the values under these
curves as functions of the variable x. For example, using
modern notation.
Newton, then tabulated not numerical areas, but the coefficients of the
various powers of x.

1. Like Wallis, Newton realized that Pascal’s triangle was here and so he
attempted to interpolate. In fact, to solve the problem of the area of the circle, he
needed the values in the column corresponding to n= 1 2. To find these values,
he rediscovered Pascal’s formula for positive integer values and decided to use
the same formula even when n was not a positive integer. He realized further
that in the original table each entry was the sum of the number to its left and the
one above that.
 04
Alogarithms
for Calculating Fluxions
1. For Newton, the basic ideas of calculus had to do with
motion. Every variable in an equation was to be considered, at
least implicitly, as a distance dependent on time. What he did
define was the concept of fluxion: The fluxion ˙x of a quantity x
dependent on time (called the fluent) was the speed with which
x increased via its generating motion. In his early works,
Newton did not attempt any further definition of speed. The
concept of continuously varying motion was, Newton believed,
completely intuitive. next page
2. Newton solved problem 1 by a perfectly straightforward
algorithm that determined the relationship of the fluxions ˙ x
and ˙ y of two fluents x and y related by an equation of the form
f(x,y)=0.
 There are several important ideas to note in Newton’s rule for calculating fluxions.
First, Newton was not calculating derivatives, for he did not in general start with a
function. What he did calculate is the differential equation satisfied by the curve
determined by the given equation. In other words, given f(x,y)=0 with x and y both
functions of t, Newton’s procedure produced what is today written as:

1. Second, Newton used Hudde’s notion of multiplying by an arbitrary

arithmetic progression. In practice, however, Newton generally used the
progression starting with the highest power of the fluent. Third, if x and y are
considered as functions of t, the modern product rule for derivatives is built into
Newton’s algorithm. Any term containing both x and y is multiplied twice and the
two terms added.
 Furthermore, Newton’s approach to the modern chain
rule was via substitution. For example, to determine the
relationship of the fluxions in the equation y −√a2−x2, he
put z for the square root and dealt with the two equations y
−z=0 and z2−a2+x2=0. The first gave ˙ y −˙ z=0 while the
second gave 2z˙ z+2x˙ x =0, or ˙ z=−x˙x/z. Thus, the
relationship between the fluxions of x and y is:
 05
Applications of Fluxions
1. Newton used them to solve various problems. Newton
found maxima and minima by setting the relevant fluxion
equal to zero, because “when a quantity is greatest or least, at
that moment its flow neither increases nor decreases; for if it
increases, that proves that it was less and will at once be
greater than it now is, and conversely so if it decreases.” He
used the equation x³ − ax² + axy − y³ = 0 as his example for
determining the greatest value of x.

1. This equation must then be solved simultaneously with the

original one to find the desired value for x. Similarly, to find the
maximum value of y, one sets y˙ = 0 and uses the resulting
equation 3x² − 2ax + ay = 0.
1. He gave no criteria for determining whether the values
found are maxima or minima. Presumably, that determination
can be made from the context in any given problem.

1. Newton used Barrow’s differential triangle. Thus, if x

changes to x + ˙xo while y changes to y + ˙yo, then the ratio yo˙ :
xo˙ = ˙y : x˙ of the sides of this triangle is the slope of the
tangent line, thought of as the direction of instantaneous
motion of the particle describing the curve. This ratio is in turn
equal to that of the ordinate y to the subtangent t. Newton
simply noted that t = y(x/˙ y)˙ . As a slight simplification in this
calculation and others, Newton sometimes set x˙ = 1. This is
equivalent to considering x as flowing uniformly, or as itself
representing time.
 06
Procedures for Finding
Fluents and Areas
• It ought to be resolved the contrary way: namely by arranging the
terms multiplied by x˙ according to the dimensions of x and dividing
by x˙ and then by the number of dimensions, by carrying out the
same operation in the terms multiplied by y˙, and, with redundant
terms rejected, setting the total of the resulting terms equal to
nothing.”

• As an example, he used his earlier problem. Starting with 3x²x˙ − 2axx˙

+ ayx˙ − 3y²y˙ + axy˙ = 0, he divided the terms having x˙ by x˙ x (or, what
amounts to the same thing, removed the x˙ and raised the power of x
by 1), then divided each term again by the new power of x to get x³ −
ax² + axy. Doing the analogous operation on the terms containing y˙,
he found −y³ + axy. Noting that axy occurs twice, he removed one of
those terms to produce the final equation x³ − ax² + axy − y³ = 0.
 07
The Synthetic Method of Fluxions
 Perhaps one of the reasons Newton did not publish his Treatise on
Methods was that by the mid-1670s, he was somewhat unhappy with his
use of “analysis” in developing the ideas of calculus. He had been studying
the ancient Greek texts and believed that mathematical “truth” must be
based on the tenets of proof that had been developed in Greece.

So, he reformulated his ideas on fluxions

from the analytic methods he used earlier into
a more synthetic method that he called “the
method of first and ultimate ratios” and then
used this method in proving 11 important
lemmas in section 1 of the Principia. For
example, we have:
• Newton’s proof used the figure, in which he represented the times by AD
and AE and the velocities by DB and DC. Areas ABD and ACE then
represent the distances (spaces).A translation of Newton’s words into an
algebraic statement would give a definition of limit close to, but not
identical with, the modern one. Newton never made such a translation.
• Nevertheless, it seems clear that Newton intuitively knew what he was
doing in using “limits” to calculate fluxions. To see this, we consider his
final tract on fluxions, the De quadratura curvarum (On the Quadrature of
Curves) of 1691 (published in 1704), where we read: “Fluxions are in the
first ratio of the nascent augments or in the ultimate ratio of the
evanescent part, but they may be expounded by any lines that are
proportional to them.” Newton then showed how to calculate the fluxion
of xn, where x flows uniformly:
 Theorem
• In a given circle the fluxion of an arc is to the fluxion of its sine as
the radius to its cosine; to the fluxion of its tangent as its cosine
is to its secant; and to the fluxion of its secant as its cosine to its
tangent.
• Newton’s derivation of the fluxion of the tangent
 08
Newton and
Celestial Physics
 Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica
(Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy)
by Isaac Newton
• often referred to as simply the Principia (/prɪnˈsɪpiə, prɪnˈkɪpiə/),
is a work in three books written in Latin, first published 5 July
1687. It is considered one of the most important works in the
history of science. It states Newton's laws of motion, forming the
foundation of classical mechanics; Newton's law of universal
gravitation; and a derivation of Johannes Kepler's laws of
planetary motion (which Kepler had first obtained empirically).
 Newton’s axioms, the three laws of motion

• Everybody perseveres in its state of being at rest

or of moving uniformly straight forward, except
insofar as it is compelled to change its state by
forces impressed. – An object at rest will remain
at rest, an object in motion will remain in motion
with constant velocity in a straight path unless
acted upon by a net external force.
• A change in motion is proportional to the motive
force impressed and takes place along the
straight line in which that force is impressed.
• To any action there is always an opposite and
equal reaction.
 Johannes Kepler's laws of Planetary Motion

They describe how

1.planets move in elliptical orbits with the Sun as

a focus,
2.a planet covers the same area of space in the
same amount of time no matter where it is in its
orbit, and
3.a planet's orbital period is proportional to the
size of its orbit (its semi-major axis).
• Newton used these laws immediately, beginning
with the following proposition (from section 2 of
Book I).
PROPOSITION 1: The areas which bodies made
to move in orbits described by radii drawn to an
unmoving center of forces.

• To deal with the central forces by geometrical

methods, Newton needed a geometrical
representation of such a force, even when the
force changes its magnitude and direction
continuously. This he accomplished in Proposition
6 and its corollaries, in which a body is orbiting
about a center S in any curve.
 COROLLARY
• From the last three propositions, it follows that if any
body P departs from the place P along any straight-
line PR with any velocity whatever and is at the same
time acted upon by a centripetal force that is
inversely proportional to the square of the distance
of places from the center, this body will move in
some one of the conics having a focus in the center
of forces; and conversely.
•PROPOSITION 15: The squares of the periodic times in
ellipses are as the cubes of the major axes.
Using the same notation and diagram as in
Proposition 11, we recall that by Proposition 11, areas
swept out are proportional to the time elapsed.
Therefore, if ▲t is the time taken in each ellipse to
sweep out the infinitesimal area PSQ, the entire area
of the ellipse is to the periodic time T ultimately as
the area of triangle PSQ(=1/2 QT·PS) is to ▲t.
Because the area of the ellipse is proportional to ab,
we know that ab is ultimately proportional to the
product of T and QT·PS. Also, for each of the elliptical
orbits, the parameter p equals QT²/QR.
 09
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
• The second inventor of the calculus.
• He was born in Leipzig
• The development of an alphabet of
human thought, a way of representing
all fundamental concepts symbolically
and a method of combining these
symbols to represent more complex
thoughts(Greatest contributions)
 10
Sums and Differences
Leibniz’s Harmonic Triangle
• Is a triangular arrangement of unit
fractions in which the outermost
diagonals consist of the reciprocals of
the row numbers and each inner cell is
the cell diagonally above and to the
left minus the cell to the left.
• Each column in this harmonic triangle
is formed by taking quotients of the
first column with the corresponding
columns of the arithmetical triangle.
1. Newton was especially struck by the analogy
between the infinite decimals of arithmetic and the
infinite degree “polynomials” that we call power
series.
2. Newton proceeded, then, at the beginning of
the Treatise, to show by example the advantage of
infinite variable sequences, or power series, which
he considered simply as generalized polynomials
with which he could operate just as with ordinary
polynomials.
 11
The Differential Triangle
and the Transmutation Theorem
 The differential triangle, the infinitesimal right triangle whose
hypotenuse ds connects two neighboring vertices of the infinite-sided
polygon representing a given curve, is similar to the triangle composed of
the ordinate y, the tangent τ, and the sub tangent t, so ds:dy:dx=τ:y:t

1. In some sense, the variable chosen to have

a constant differential can be thought of as the
independent variable. In any case, it was
through manipulations of the differentials in the
differential triangle, using his basic rules for
manipulating with differentials, that Leibniz
found the central techniques for his version of
the calculus
1. Pascal had used the differential triangle in a circle of radius r to show
that, in Leibniz’s language, yds=rdx. Leibniz realized that this rule could be
generalized to any curve if one replaced the radius by the normal linen, because
the triangle made up of the ordinate, normal, and subnormal ν was similar to the
differential triangle. Therefore, y:dx=n:ds or yds=ndx
2. Because 2πy ds can be interpreted as the surface area of the surface
formed by rotating ds around the x-axis, this formula replaced a surface area
calculation with an area calculation. Similarly, Leibniz noted that dx:dy=y:ν or
ydy=νdx. Because he realized that ∫ydy represented a triangle whose area was
(1/2)b2, where b was the final value of the ordinate y, he had the result that
∫νdx=(1/2)b2. Therefore, to find the area under a curve with ordinate z, it was
sufficient to find a curve y whose subnormal ν was equal to z.
3. But since ν=y dy/dx, this was equivalent to solving the equation
y(dy/dx)=z. In other words, an area problem was reduced to what Leibniz called
an inverse problem of tangents.
Transmutation Theorem
Although these particular rules did not lead Leibniz to any previously
unknown result, a generalization of this method gave him his transmutation
theorem and led him to his arithmetical quadrature of the circle, a series
expression forπ/4.
• In the curve OPQD, where P and Q are
infinitesimally close, he constructed the triangle
OPQ
• Extending PQ=ds into the tangent to the curve,
drawing OW perpendicular to the tangent, and
setting hand z as in the figure, he showed, using
the similarity of triangle TWO to the differential
triangle, that dx:h=ds:z or that zdx=hds.
 12
The Calculus of Differentials
1. Leibniz discovered his transmutation
theorem and the arithmetical quadrature of the
circle in 1674. During the next two years, he
discovered all the basic ideas of his calculus of
differentials. He only first published some of these
results in “A new method for maxima and minima
as well as tangents, which is neither impeded by
fractional nor irrational quantities, and a remarkable
type of calculus for them,” a brief article appearing
in 1684 in the Acta Eruditorum.
Acta Eruditorum
• Founded by Leibniz, together
with a fellow German
philosopher and scientist, Otto
Mencke.

• It was the first scientific journal

of the German-speaking lands
of Europe, published from 1682
to 1782.
Johann Bernoulli
• A Swiss mathematician and was one of the
many prominent mathematicians in
the Bernoulli family.
• He is known for his contributions to
infinitesimal calculus.
• He published a paper entitled Principles of
the Exponential Calculus, which he
generalized Leibniz’s results to find
relationships of the differentials in such
equations as,
• 𝒚=𝒙^𝒙, 𝒙^𝒙+𝒙^𝒄=𝒙^𝒚+𝒚, and 𝒛=𝒙^(𝒚^𝒗 ).
 13
The Fundamental Theorem and
Differential Equations
Leibniz’s Justification
1.Relates infinitesimals to Archimedean exhaustion
“ For instead of the infinite or the infinitely small, one takes quantities
as large, or as small, as necessary in order that the error be smaller than
the given error, so that one differs from Archimedes style only in the
expression, which are more direct in our method and conform more to the
art of invention. ”
Law of Continuity
“If any continuous transition is proposed terminating in a certain limit,
then it is possible to form a general reasoning, which also covers the final
limit.”
 1. It should be clear that although Leibniz and Newton discovered
the same rules and procedures that today called the calculus, their
approaches to the subject were entirely different.

Approach of Newton Approach of Leibniz

Through the ideas of velocity Through differences

and distance and sums

The unfortunate result of the controversy was that the interchange of ideas
between English and Continental mathematicians virtually ceased. A far as the
calculus was concerned, the English adopted Newton’s methods and notation, while
on the Continent, mathematicians used those of Leibniz. It turned out that Leibniz’s
notation and his calculus of differentials proved easier to work with.
 14
First Calculus Texts
1. The differences between the English
and Continental approaches appear vividly
in the first calculus texts to appear, those of
the Marquis de l’Hospital (1661–1704) in
France in 1696 and those of Charles Hayes
(1678–1760) and Humphry Ditton (1675–
1715) in England in 1704 and 1706,
respectively.
 15
L’ Hospital’s Analyse des
Infiniment Petits
Marquis de l’Hospital (1661–1704)

• Served as an army officer during his

youth.
• Mathematician
• Wrote the first textbook on calculus
Analyse des infiniments petits, pour
l’inteligence des lignes courbes
(Analysis of Infinitely Small Quantities
for the Understanding of Curves),
which consisted of the lectures of
Johann Bernoulli.
1. He defined variable quantities as those that continually
increase or decrease and then giving his fundamental
definition of a differential:
2.“The infinitely small part by which a variable quantity
increases or decreases continually is called the differential of
that quantity.”

1. He then presented two postulates to govern his use of

these differentials:
2.1. Grant that two quantities, whose difference is an infinitely
small quantity, may be taken (or used) indifferently for each
other; or (which is the same thing) that a quantity which is
increased or decreased only by an infinitely small quantity may
be considered as remaining the same
1. 2. Grant that a curve may be considered as the assemblage of an
infinite number of infinitely small straight lines; or (which is the same
thing) as a polygon of an infinite number of sides, each infinitely small,
which determine the curvature of the curve by the angles they make
with each other.

1. For l’Hospital, then, there was no question about the existence of

infinitesimals. They exist; they can be represented by elements of the
differential triangle; and calculations can be made using the various
rules that he presented. L’Hospital dealt virtually exclusively with
algebraic curves. He only mentioned briefly the logarithmic curve,
defined as one whose subtangent 𝒚 𝒅𝒙/𝒅𝒚 is constant, and did not
consider anything resembling a trigonometric curve.
 L’Hospital’s treatment of maxima and minima was slightly more
general than that of Leibniz. He noted that the differential dy will be positive
if the ordinates are increasing and negative if they are decreasing, but showed
further that dy can change from positive to negative, and the ordinates from
increasing to decreasing, in two possible ways, if dy passes through 0 or
through infinity. He presented diagrams illustrating four possibilities, two
where the tangent line is horizontal and two where there are cusps and the
tangent line is vertical, as well as examples illustrating these possibilities.
Thus, to find the maximum of

1. Since dy = 0 is impossible, he set dy equal to infinity.

This implied that or that x = a.
1.
2. PROPOSITION
3. Let AM D be a curve (AP = x, PM = y, AB = a) such that the value of the ordinate
y is expressed by a fraction, of which the numerator and denominator each become
0 when x = a, that is to say, when the point P corresponds to the given point B. It is
required to find what will then be the value of the ordinate BD.
4. L’Hospital’s diagram illustrating l’Hospital’s rule. Notice that the function g is
drawn below the x axis, but the quotient function, represented by curve AMD, is
above the x axis. Think of all values of the functions involved as representing
positive quantities.
 16
The Works of Ditton and Hayes
Charles Hayes (1678–1760)
• English mathematician and chronologist,
In 1704 he published Treatise of Fluxions, or
An Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy
• The book is the first English text on Newton's
method of fluxions, or, to phrase it in more
modern terms, the first English calculus text.
The book is a very full treatise, about three
times the size of de l'Hôpital's famous
calculus book. It contains 315 closely printed
folio pages on fluxions as well as a twelve-
page introduction to conic sections at the
beginning of the book.
Humphry Ditton (1675–1715)

• published An Institution of Fluxions

• Ditton wrote that quantities are not to be
imagined as “the aggregates or sums total of
an infinite number of little constituent elements
but as the result of a regular flux, proceeding
incessantly, from the first moment of its
beginning to that of perfect rest. A line is
described not by the apposition of little lines or
parts, but by the continual motion of a point. . .
.
1. Ditton treated other aspects of the integral
calculus in detail, including rectification of curves,
areas of curved surfaces, volumes of solids, and
centers of gravity. But his text, like those of Hayes
and l’Hospital, had no treatment of the calculus of
the sine or cosine. There was an occasional
mention of these trigonometric relations as part of
certain problems, but there is nowhere at the turn of
the eighteenth century any treatment of the calculus
of these functions. This was not to come until the
work of Leonhard Euler in the 1730s.
Thank You !!