Sirius Deng

Mrs. Beaumont
AP Calculus
10/6/2015

Who Invent Calculus

To invent a great theory or prove a new hypothesis, there are predecessors who
collect the information and lay a foundation for future research. Also, it takes several
generations of research and consideration to uncover an explore the evidences. In
addition, it needs the masters in this field to correlate and integrate the information
and come up with a full picture, like piecing together a jigsaw puzzle. In the 18th
century, Calculus opened up a whole new world of solutions to help solve many of the
problems in the fields of science and math.
Officially, Newton and Leibniz invented Calculus in different methods. As Newton
stated, I just stand on the shoulders of giants. I must mention the other people who
contributed to the discovery of Calculus. Before Newton and Leibniz, many
mathematicians, astronomers and physicists made important contributions to help
build this foundation. For example, Fermat, Descartes, Barrow and Kepler, all of them
tried to discover the secrets from Calculus. However, they just saw the tip of the
iceberg. Newton had some of the first ideas for the model of Calculus and beginning
research. Leibnizs essay came out three years earlier than Newtons. Because the
communication was blocked between England and the European mainland, we cannot
accurately figure it out who was the first one to invent Calculus, but we believe that
they both discovered Calculus by themselves.
Newton and Leibniz both began the center of Calculus, the tangent question and
the modify question, which the differentiation and the integration center question. For

the question of whom invented Calculus, I think Newton is earlier. Newton began
from the view point of physics and used the physics model to establish his research.
Leibniz found Calculus from the study of shapes and graphs. However, Newton made
the real model and described it earlier than Leibniz. According to Newtons
explanation, he just hid his results at home and tried to make it more accurate and
reasonable. Leibniz wrote the essay named A new way to solve the max and min
tangent question, and work on the fraction and irrational number too, and the
calculation research. Obviously, this is just one of the raw materials of Calculus. It
cost Newton several years of research because he wanted to make sure his equations
did not have any mistakes,but after he died, no one completed this work. 150 years
later, in 19th century, Cauchy and Riemann spent many years trying finally solve the
mystery of Calculus.
A great theory needs many years and scientists working on it to give birth to a new
field of study. Calculus was first conceived around 300 years ago, but it is still
developing now. Every time the theory expanded, the theory becomes more powerful
and can be applied cross the broad disciplines.