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Calculus, originally called infinitesimal calculus, is a mathematical discipline focused on limits, continuity, derivatives, integrals, and infinite series.Many elements of calculus appeared in ancient Greece, then in China and the Middle East, and still later again in medieval Europe and in India.
This concept was the predecessor to the modern method of integration used in integral calculus. The conceptual origins of the concept of the infinitesimal 1/∞ can be traced as far back as the Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea, whose Zeno's dichotomy paradox was the first mathematical concept to consider the relationship between a finite interval ...
In mathematics education, calculus is an abbreviation of both infinitesimal calculus and integral calculus, which denotes courses of elementary mathematical analysis. In Latin, the word calculus means “small pebble”, (the diminutive of calx, meaning "stone"), a meaning which still persists in medicine.
Baron's book The Origins of the Infinitesimal Calculus, originally published in 1969 by Pergamon, was reprinted in 1987 by Dover Books, [1] [2] and has been suggested for inclusion in undergraduate mathematics libraries by the Mathematical Association of America. [3]
The strong implications of infinitesimal calculus on foundations of mathematics is illustrated by a pamphlet of the Protestant philosopher George Berkeley (1685–1753), who wrote "[Infinitesimals] are neither finite quantities, nor quantities infinitely small, nor yet nothing. May we not call them the ghosts of departed quantities?".
1673 - Gottfried Leibniz also develops his version of infinitesimal calculus, 1675 - Isaac Newton invents a Newton's method for the computation of roots of a function, 1675 - Leibniz uses the modern notation for an integral for the first time, 1677 - Leibniz discovers the rules for differentiating products, quotients, and the function of a ...
The original formulation of infinitesimal calculus by Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz used infinitesimal quantities. In the second half of the 20th century, it was shown that this treatment could be put on a rigorous footing through various logical systems, including smooth infinitesimal analysis and nonstandard analysis. In the latter ...
The development of infinitesimal calculus was at the forefront of 18th-century mathematical research, and the Bernoullis—family friends of Euler—were responsible for much of the early progress in the field. Thanks to their influence, studying calculus became the major focus of Euler's work.