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A Background Study About Calculus

Calculus is the study of change and motion and is an important branch of mathematics. It was independently discovered in the late 1600s by Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz, who developed the concept of the derivative. Both mathematicians used calculus to understand laws of motion and gravitation. While Newton wrote about his findings in Latin, Leibniz published works in German. Their independent discoveries led to accusations of plagiarism. It is now understood they developed calculus through different approaches. Calculus gives us power to model and control changing systems, with applications in engineering, science, and economics that impact daily life. It allows problems involving continuous change to be solved through approximations and limits,

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Ann Del Rosario
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150 views3 pages

A Background Study About Calculus

Calculus is the study of change and motion and is an important branch of mathematics. It was independently discovered in the late 1600s by Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz, who developed the concept of the derivative. Both mathematicians used calculus to understand laws of motion and gravitation. While Newton wrote about his findings in Latin, Leibniz published works in German. Their independent discoveries led to accusations of plagiarism. It is now understood they developed calculus through different approaches. Calculus gives us power to model and control changing systems, with applications in engineering, science, and economics that impact daily life. It allows problems involving continuous change to be solved through approximations and limits,

Uploaded by

Ann Del Rosario
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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A Background Study about Calculus

Submitted to the class of

Ms. Alyssa Mae Reyes

As partial fulfillment of the requirement in

English for Academic Purposes Program

Submitted By:

Cantillon, Dan Griftter B.

Del Rosario, Annfernee Karyl P.

Dela Cruz, Janwin P.

Lopez, Donato Jose Alberto A.

Our Lady, Mediatrix of All Graces


A Background Study about Calculus

According to Jon Advinson (n.d.), The word "calculus" comes from "rock", and also means a
stone formed in a body. People in ancient times did arithmetic with piles of stones, so a particular method
of computation in mathematics came to be known as calculus. Calculus is the study
of change and motion, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape and algebra is the study of
rules of operations and relations. It is the culmination of algebra, geometry, and trigonometry, which
makes it the next step in a logical progression of mathematics.

Many of students often fail to learn is where the whole subject came from. They know the
formulas but not who invented them and for what purpose. By understanding its origins, students may be
encouraged to understand calculus, finding interest in its history. Calculus has 2 fathers: Isaac Newton
and Gottfried Leibniz. Both mathematicians discovered, or invented, the Derivative concept separately
and with different notations.

Calculus was originally written in Latin, Newton discusses his findings in his 1687 masterpiece
on classical Mechanics, “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”. Newton’s objectives went far
beyond maths as he was trying to understand the laws of motion and laws of gravitation. It is quite
remarkable that in order to gain that understanding, he had to invent a whole new mathematical apparatus
and it was calculus.

Leibniz noted the Derivative concept in his 1684 mathematical paper. As a German philosopher
and mathematician, Leibniz also had deep ideas in mind leading to his discovery of calculus.

What’s most interesting about the history of the most famous sets of mathematical concepts of all
time was the deeply rooted controversy regarding its origin; both Newton and Leibniz were accused of
plagiarism over the other. It is nowadays calculated they both reached calculus by different routes.

It is important that students don’t lose track of the origins of calculus. We would recommend
every calculus teacher to experiment with this approach to calculus in the classroom to see how the
students react and link back calculus to its roots in the eyes of the student.

With calculus, we have the ability to find the effects of changing conditions on a system. By
studying these, you can learn how to control a system to make it do what you want it to do. Because of
the ability to model and control systems, calculus gives us extraordinary power over the material world.

Calculus is the language of engineers, scientists, and economists. The work of these professionals
has a huge impact on our daily life - from your microwaves, cell phones, TV, and car to medicine,
economy, and national defense.

It takes problems that cannot be done with regular math because things are constantly changing,
zooms in on the changing curve until it becomes straight, and then it lets regular math finish off the
problem. What makes calculus such a brilliant achievement is that it actually zooms in infinitely. In fact,
everything you do in calculus involves infinity in one way or another, because if something is constantly
changing, it is changing infinitely from each infinitesimal moment to the next. All of calculus relies on
the fundamental principle that you can always use approximations of increasing accuracy to find the exact
answer. Just like you can approximate a curve by a series of straight lines, you can also approximate a
spherical solid by a series of cubes that fit inside the sphere. (Wyzant, Inc. n.d.)

https://www.wyzant.com/resources/lessons/math/calculus/introduction

https://www.sscc.edu/home/jdavidso/mathadvising/aboutcalculus.html

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