HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND APPLICATIONS OF CALCULUS

Infinitesimal calculus, called "calculus" for brevity, has its origins in ancient Greek geometry. Democritus calculated the
volume of pyramids and cones considering them formed by an infinite number of sections of infinitesimal (infinitely small)
thickness. Eudoxus and Archimedes used the "method of exhaustion" to find the area of a circle with the required finite
accuracy by using regular inscribed polygons of increasing numbers of sides. In the late Greek period, the Neoplatonist
Pappus of Alexandria made outstanding contributions in this field. However, the difficulties in working with irrational
numbers and the paradoxes of Zeno of Elea prevented the formulation of a systematic theory of calculus in the ancient
period.

In its beginnings, calculus was developed to study four scientific and mathematical problems:

• Finding the tangent to a curve at a point.

• Find the maximum or minimum value of a quantity.
• Find the length of a curve, the area of a region, and the volume of a solid.
• Given a formula for the distance traveled by a body in any known time, find the speed and the
acceleration of the body at any instant. Reciprocally, given a formula that specifies the acceleration or velocity at any
instant, find the distance traveled by the body in a known period of time.
In the 17th century, Cavalieri and Torricelli expanded the use of infinitesimals, Descartes and Fermat used algebra to find
area and tangents (integration and differentiation in modern terms). Fermat and Barrow were certain that both calculations
were related, although it was Newton (around 1660), in England, and Leibniz in Germany (around 1670) who
demonstrated that the area and tangent problems are inverse, which is known as the fundamental theorem of calculus.

In 1684, the German professor and diplomat Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz published a mathematical work in the journal Acta
Eruditorum announcing "a new method for maxima, minima, and tangents, which is not hindered by fractional or irrational
quantities, as well as a remarkable type of calculation for this," that is, a work about what we now know as differential
calculus. Two years later, he published, in the same journal, the foundations of what we know today as Integral Calculus.

Although Leibniz was the first to publish a work on calculus, it was Isaac Newton who first developed these topics during
the years 1664 to 1666. At the time, Newton was a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, and invented what he called
fluxions, which were nothing more than a set of rules with which he could also calculate maximums, minimums and
tangents without fractional or irrational quantities being an obstacle.
In 1669, when Newton was 27 years old, he already held a chair of mathematics at Cambridge, but his real rise to fame
came in 1687, when he published his book Principia Mathematica, a work that some say is the greatest scientific book
ever written. In it he explained the laws that govern the universe, and mathematically deduced everything from the flow of
the tides to the orbits of the planets. With this work, Newton became the living symbol of the new science and a demigod
of scientific circles. From then on, he became a member of parliament, Director of the Royal Mint and President of the
Royal Society (an English organisation made up of the most prestigious scientists).

The facts of the Newton-Leibniz disputes were, basically, the following:

• Newton described his method of fluxions in a manuscript from 1669; this manuscript circulated among a select group of
British mathematicians, but was not published.
• In the mid-1670s and early 1680s, Leibniz discovered virtually the same methods as Newton, and in 1676, during a
diplomatic mission to London, he saw a copy of Newton's manuscript. And shortly after, he received two letters from
Newton in which the latter revealed to him some ideas about fluxions. (A careful analysis of Leibniz's work, however,
allows us to deduce that his discovery was independent of his contacts with Newton.)
• In 1684, Leibniz published his first work on Differential Calculus, but nowhere in it did he mention Newton; he did not even
say that he had seen a manuscript of Newton.
• As things stood, many English mathematicians openly accused Leibniz of plagiarism, to the point that such accusations
even appeared in the journal of the Royal Society, in an article in which it was said that the only new thing in Leibniz's
work was the use of a different notation.
Leibniz complained to the Royal Society for allowing accusations of plagiarism to be published in the pages of its journal.
The Royal Society responded by setting up a commission to investigate priority rights. His final report, published in 1713,
fully agreed with Newton, suggesting clearly that Leibniz had no idea about calculus until 1677, long after he had received
Newton's letters and seen his manuscripts. Such a harsh verdict, however, lost all its force when it was seen that the
president of the Royal Society was precisely Newton. But the give and take continued and soon an accusatory pamphlet
against Newton appeared on the continent. The pamphlet was anonymous, but it was later discovered that it had been
written by Leibniz himself.
Clearly, both had made mistakes: Newton by not properly publishing his discoveries, and Leibniz by not having acknowledged
from the beginning his contact with Newton's documents and thus not having shared the authorship of the discovery, which he
knew should be shared. In any case, this affair ended up being an embarrassment for Newton, Leibniz and the entire
academic world.

Today, the entire scientific community grants them both the honor of having discovered calculus. However, nowadays the
notations that Leibniz used to symbolize differentials and integrals are still followed due to their versatility.

Nowadays, infinitesimal calculus has a double aspect: on the one hand, its disciplinary character has been consolidated in the
formation of the cultured knowledge society, with texts from the discipline standing out in this field, such as those by Louis
Leithold and Earl W. Swokowski or James Stewart among many others; on the other hand, its development as a scientific
discipline that has led to such specialized fields as fractional calculus, the theory of analytical functions of complex variables or
mathematical analysis. The success of calculus has been extended over time to differential equations, vector calculus,
calculus of variations, complex analysis, and algebraic topology and differential topology among many other branches.

The development and use of calculus has had very important effects on almost all areas of modern life: it is the basis for
numerical calculation applied in almost all technical and/or scientific fields whose main characteristic is the continuity of its
elements, especially in physics. Virtually all modern technical developments such as construction, aviation, transportation,
meteorology, etc. make use of calculus. Many algebraic formulas are used today in ballistics, heating, refrigeration, etc.

As a complement to calculus, in relation to theoretical or physical systems whose elements lack continuity, a special branch
known as Discrete Mathematics has been developed.

IMAC Newton Gottfried W. Leibniz

 AAC NEWTON

Differential calculus is the branch of mathematics that comprises the study and application of differential calculus
and integral calculus. Differential calculus originated in the 17th century when carrying out studies on movement,
that is, when studying the speed of bodies falling into a vacuum as it changes from one moment to another; the
speed at each instant must be calculated, taking into account the distance traveled in an infinitesimally small
time. In 1666, the English scientist ISAAC NEWTON was the first to develop mathematical methods to solve
problems of this nature. Almost at the same time, the German philosopher and mathematician GOTTFRIED
LEIBNIZ carried out similar research and devised mathematical symbols that are still used today. Other
mathematicians stand out for having done important work related to differential calculus, among others, PIERRE
FERMAT, a French mathematician, stands out. In his work he talks about the methods designed to determine the
maximums and minimums, almost coming close to discovering differential calculus. This work influenced
LEIBNIZ in his research into differential calculus. FERMAT left almost all of his theorems unproven, since at that
time it was common among mathematicians to pose problems to each other, so they frequently concealed their
own method of solution, in order to reserve success for themselves and their nation; since there was great rivalry
between the French, Germans and the English, which is why FERMAT's demonstrations have been lost. The
general processes and simple practical rules of differential calculus are due to NEWTO and LEIBNIZ; however, for
more than 150 years differential calculus continued to be based on the concept of the infinitesimal. In the 19th
century, firmer and more logical foundations were found beyond the infinitely small. Differential calculus has
been developing over the years, consolidating itself into a technical-scientific tool that is used in the analysis of
processes that contain magnitudes in constant change, for example: the speed of chemical reactions,
atmospheric changes, social and economic developments of nations, in astronomy, statistics, etc. NEWTON and
LEIBNIZ are called founders of calculus since they were the first to study the geometric problem fundamentally of
differential calculus, which is called: Problems of the tangents in which the tangent lines to a given curve must be
found.
APPLICATIONS TO ECONOMICS.
When a good is produced or a service is provided, a cost is generated for an organization, which may be commercial,
industrial, etc.
Cost Functions.
Now we consider different types of cost, which are functions of the following type: Total cost function.
The total cost function Q(x) is a relation whose domain is a subinterval A of R + representing the quantity of
production and whose codomain is R + = (0;1) 1 ; that is, Q: A ½ R + !R + x ! Q(x) Demand function.
We define demand as the quantity of an item that an individual is willing to buy at a specific price.
The demand function d = x(p) is a mathematical relationship that expresses the variation in demand for a product,
which changes depending on the price at which it is sold, where its domain is a subinterval B of R+ that represents
the price of the item and whose codomain is R+ , that is,
X: B ½ R + ! R + p ! x(p)
APPLICATIONS TO DEMOGRAPHY AND ACTUARY
Age groups.
In almost all functions handled in demographics, the variable used is the age of the people, for this reason it is
important to analyze the types of age groups that are used.
When demographic information is presented by age groups, such as information obtained in a census, age ranges
are often presented in two different ways.
The most general one is the one shown below,
Age groups Population
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APPLICATIONS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE AND PROGRAMMING

Differentials can be applied to anything that is statistics, for example:
In gas, water and electricity distribution companies, they have to periodically take consumption measurements of
each client. They are not always willing to verify these values at everyone's residence, as this involves expenses, so
it is more economical for them to calculate each person's consumption statistically from other real data, for example,
previous consumption taken from the meter, consumption of other customers with similar characteristics, etc.
Although there is no single way to calculate these values, one or more of them are with differential calculation. In
fact, companies that do this do these calculations, each with their own program dedicated to this purpose.
APPLICATIONS IN ENGINEERING
The concepts of continuity and limit of a real function of a real variable are studied. Intuitively we said that a function

derivability. Intuitively, a function f will be derivable at a point x0 ∈ Dom(f) if the graph of f is continuous at x0 and if,
is continuous when its graph does not present cuts or jumps. The objective of this chapter is to study the concept of

in addition, the change of f(x) is smooth when x is in the vicinity of x0 - in other words, when the graph of f does not
present a “spike” at x0.

APPLICATIONS IN ADMINISTRATION

Since economic and management analysis frequently deals with changes, calculation is an extremely valuable tool
for business managers and economists. Marginal analysis is perhaps the most direct application of calculus to
economics and management; the marginal rate of change or variation in the margin is expressed analytically as the
first derivative of the relevant function. Differential calculus is also the method by which maxima and minima of
functions are obtained. Therefore, using calculus, problems related to maximizing profits or minimizing costs can be
solved, under certain assumptions. Mathematical programming, which aims to maximize or minimize functions
subject to restrictions, is increasingly used in economics and administration. The methods used in linear
programming are applications of differential calculus.