WHO DISCOVERED CALCULUS?

DISCOVERING CALCULUS, WHO’S EFFORT?

NEWTON? OR LEIBNITZ?

The discovery of calculus has leaded a very wide and lengthy controversy between German mathematician (Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz) and the English mathematician (Isaac Newton) who are all the great mathematicians of their days.

The question of who found calculus was the most controversial issue circulating the field of sciences in the whole world around 1699 to 1711. At first, Leibniz published his work in 1669 but newton’s supporters accuse him vehemently on plagiarizing the work of their master

Newton claimed that he had begun on a form calculus in 1666 by then he was 23 years old, though at that time the name calculus was not in existence and therefore he name his work as `some methods of fluctuations` but he did not publish it except as some little annotations at the back of some of his publications which though a very interesting and ingenious discovery but lack some important features.

The reason behind the accusation

As mentioned earlier, Newton was the first to have discovered calculus but his work was not in publication recently after the discovery, but he circulated it among mathematicians like Ehrenfried Walter in 1676, at a time when he and Leibnitz were collaborating. Therefore, it is very possible that the work of Newton might have been extracted by Leibniz at that time.

It is also possible that Leibniz has seen the Newton`s manuscript when he was discussing analysis by infinite series with Collins and Oldenburg, it possible that they would have shown him Newton`s work on that very subject, a copy of which either or both of them must have possessed at that time. On the other hand, it may be guessed Leibnitz extracted the work from the first printed copy in or shortly after 1704 that is shortly before his death, but he claimed that they were of little or no value at all. In 1849, C.I Gerhardt while going through Leibniz manuscripts found extracts from Newton`s de analysis per equations numero termimnorioum infinitas that was published in 1704.

On his own part , Leibniz claimed that he invented calculus independently of Newton and one can believe in him if consider the fact that he published his first work years before Newton printed anything, and as well he strongly claimed that the work was his discovery without having any refute from Newton side for some years. Moreover, Leibnitz demonstrated his work in totally different way from that of Newton and which is very difficult if the work was plagiarism of  Newton`s work.

It was also said that Leibnitz published a work called  “Anonymous” slanders of Newton regarding their controversy though he initially denied the authorial.

Who really made the first discovery?

Up to date, it is impossible to answer directly the above question, because of the amount of complexities it involves. Therefore, it was universally agreed by scholars that, calculus was discovered independently by both Newton and Leibniz.

However, both the two of them have contributed individually in some important parts. For example, Newton at first came up with the idea of differentiation while Leibniz came up with that of integration in addition to the dy/dx notations.

Nura Auwal Ibrahim

Civil Engr. Student

Bayero University Kano, Nigeria.

29/01/2019.