Calculus Project 3:

Origins of Calculus

I. Background
Mathematics has a long history. Some of the earliest recorded uses of mathematics include
the ancient Egyptians using math (geometry) to build their pyramids and the Babylonians’
method for computing a square root. The ancient Greeks improved on geometry and gave
us the notion of a proof. The ancient Chinese gave us the Chinese remainder theorem (they
also independently developed all the same math as in the west). The ancient Indians, as in
from India, gave us algebra.

But for all the math that was known and used in business, architecture, finance, science, etc.,
standardized mathematical symbols and formulas were not developed until the Middle
Ages. For example, in the 1500s, it was known how to solve quadratic, cubic, and quartic
equations, but there were no formulas. Instead, there were just lists of steps to follow.

Science was improving. More people were looking at the known universe and trying to
figure out what was going on based off their observations. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 –
1543) proposed that the sun was at the center of the universe and backed up his theory with
observations and trig calculations. Then Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642) expanded on
Copernicus’s theory. Galileo also worked on experiments with gravity and constructed
telescopes which could see farther into space than earlier telescopes. While new theories in
science were occurring rapidly, many of the findings could not be proven to be fact because
the math to prove these hypotheses had yet to be created.

Two main people are credited as creating calculus: Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibnitz.
While Leibnitz published his calculus first, it is thought that Newton developed his calculus
a few years before Leibnitz. This created a large controversy between English and
continental mathematicians at the time. Today mathematicians mainly use the notation of
Leibnitz since his notation is more versatile then Newton’s. However, in problems where
time is one of several variables used, people often use Newton’s notion (to differentiate from
having a variable in time vs. a variable in distance).

II. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz (1646 – 1716)

Born in Leipzig, Germany, Leibnitz was quite a scholar. By the time he was twenty, he
applied to law school, and had all the qualifications, but he was turned down. The school
thought he was too young. In 1667, he received a political post in Mintz, Germany. (Recall,
there were many wars centered around Germany.) As part of his duties, he was sent to
France in 1672 to try to get France not to march on Germany. While he was in Paris, he met
several prominent mathematicians. (At this time, France had a number of famous and
influential mathematicians. Among others, there were Blasé Pascal, Rene Descartes, and
Pierre de Fermat.)
 During the 4 years Leibnitz was in France, he studied mathematics on the side. He worked
with finite sums (ie: adding a finite number of numbers) and infinite sums (ie: adding up a
list of numbers that doesn’t end). Through this work, he developed the concept of integrals
(the topic covered in a Calculus 2 course). In the course of this work, he by necessity
discovered a number of derivative rules. We’ll look at 3 of his main derivative rules below.
Be aware, when Leibnitz uses or , he is assuming that and are functions. Notice also
that instead of using derivatives he is in fact using differentials here.

· · ·

· ·

· ·

Use Leibnitz’s rules to compute the following differentials:

1. · cos

2. /

3.

III. Pierre de Fermat (1601 – 1665)

Fermat spent most of his life in Toulouse, France where he worked as a lawyer. Fermat
worked on math problems as his hobby. His main contributions to mathematics were in
number theory where he worked on such things as the properties of prime numbers. He is
probably most known for his famous Last Theorem 1 . Fermat also worked with Pascal on
“the problem of the points” which led to advances in probability theory. Additionally, both
Fermat and Descartes worked in the field of analytical geometry (applies algebra techniques
to geometry). However, they did not work together, and in fact, did not like other.

1Fermat’s Last Theorem:

For 2, there are no non-zero integers , , and such that
 Fermat’s method for finding tangent lines has parts that are almost identical to the method
we use today even though he did not use limits. Let’s walk through what Fermat would do
if he wanted to find the slope of a line tangent to at the general point .

We pick an arbitrary point close to x:

(x+e, f(x+e)) (x+e, f(x+e)) where e is small
(x, f(x)) k Then k ≈ f(x+e)

s e
After drawing the diagram and labeling the points, we use similar triangles to get:

Next we solve for :

·
1

Recall that , so we get that

But , so we get that

" "

Then the slope of the tangent line at , is

Is this the answer you expected? ____________ Why or why not? _________________________
IV. Sir Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727)
Englishman Sir Isaac Newton did not publish works unless he was forced since he did not
want to deal with criticism; however, he would present his work at lectures and to the
British Royal Society (Britain’s national science society) of which he was the head for a
number of years. Newton used his calculus to prove his theories of the universe. He
published his theories in 1687 in 3 volumes, which he called the Philosophiae Natualis
Principia Mathematica. It is now referred to as The Principia. In this set, he tried to explain
the motions of the heavenly bodies. Among other things, he introduced his 3 Laws of
Motion in this work. Now, while he had used calculus to develop and prove his theories
and laws in this work, he knew that the average person would not be able to understand
both the new theories in science and the new math he had developed, so when he wrote the
book(s) he left out the calculus.

When Newton worked with calculus there were 2 central ideas that he considered:

1. Given the length of the space at any time, find the speed of the motion at the time
progressed. (ie: find the velocity of an object – 1st derivative)
2. Given the speed of the motion at any time, find the length of the space described at
any time proposed. (ie: given the velocity, find the position – antiderivative)

We’ll only consider the first idea. The terms he used were different than the ones we’ve
been using:

• Fluent – the quantity , which is changing over time. This is the function.
• Fluxion – the speed at which is changing, called (ie: first derivative with respect
to time).
• Moment – the amount by which the fluent changes over an infinitely small period of
time. is the infinitely small period of time. The moment is .

Let’s walk through what Newton would do if he wanted to calculate the derivative of
3 6. This process is called the Method of Fluxions since both and are fluents.

Step 1: replace with and with

3 6

Step 2: simplify the expression

3 6

Substitute 3 6 in for and cancel terms:

3
Step 3: solve for

is infinitesimally small, so we “cast it out.” Remove all terms with still in them:

Step 4: solve for /

Find the derivative of 3 6 the way our textbook shows:

is this the same answer as / ?

Consider the equation 3 5. Find / using Newton Method of Fluxions.

Consider the equation 4 . Find using Newton Method of Fluxions. (The

answer should have both and in it, but not .)
V. Rene Descartes (1596 - 1650)
Descartes is known as the father of modern philosophy and is the founder of analytic
geometry. He was the first to plot equations on a graph; he came up with the idea of the x-y
plane to make dealing with curves easier, which is why the x-y plane is officially called the
Cartesian Coordinate Plane. Because of Descartes, calculus was able to be developed within
a generation. Descartes used geometry to find both the equation of the tangent line and the
slope of the tangent line to a curve. He often worked with sideways parabolas.

Let’s walk through what Descartes would do if he wanted to calculate the slope of the line
tangent to at , where is some positive constant.

r
a

,0

Equation of a circle: with center at , 0 and radius

, & ,0 0

2 2 2

2 2 2 0

2 2 2 0

The way the circle is set up there will be exactly 1 solution to this quadratic equation. A
quadratic equation with one solution must be in the form: 0

So, we complete the square on 2 to get: 2

Which means that 2 2 2

2 2 8 8 4 4

0 4 12 9 2 3

2 3 0
 Thus, we need to choose the point , 0 as the center of the circle. This circle will then
automatically be tangent to the point , on the line . So the slope of the tangent
line at , will be perpendicular to the slope between the points , and ,0 .

Find the slope between the points , and ,0 :

What is the slope of the tangent line at , ?

Use implicit differentiation to find of the equation :

What is at the point , ? Does your answer agree with the answer from Descartes’
method?

Why would you hypothesize that Descartes’ method never really caught on?

VI. References and More Information

a. Books
i. Carl Boyer & Uta Merzbach, A History of Mathematics (New York: Wiley,
1989).
ii. C.H. Edwards, The Historical Development of the Calculus (New York:
Springer-Verlag, 1979).
iii. Howard Eves, An Introduction to the History of Mathematics, 6th ed. (New
York: Saunders, 1990).
iv. Victor Katz, A History of Mathematics (Boston: Pearson, 2004).
v. Morris Kline, Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1972).
b. Websites
i. http://royalsociety.org/history-of-science/
ii. http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/BiogIndex.html
iii. http://library.thinkquest.org/22584/