February 25, 2018 Sunday
Bedtime Story
The Birth of Infinitesimal Calculus - 1684 Paper
I can bet any money that other political
boundaries undergo and have underwent similar transformations and that is why
patriotism based on such fluid political boundaries should sound absurd to any
person who is well read in history.
The science journal Acta Eruditorum was
founded in the city of Leipzig by a German scientist by the name of Otto Mencke
who also became its first editor in 1682.
It remained in publication for a hundred
years till 1782.
The co-editor of the newly founded journal
was none other than Gottfried Leibniz himself.
Mencke was one of those few lucky men in
the science history who got to correspond with two great mathematical geniuses
at the same time – Leibniz and his English rival across the channel Newton.
Several great European minds that included
the likes of Euler, Laplace, and Jacob Bernoulli published their ideas in this
journal.
One notable exception was Isaac Newton;
even though he corresponded with the editor of the journal Otto Mencke he never
really did publish anything in this journal.
It is possible that this may have been due
to the intense and bitter Leibniz-Newton calculus controversy over who was
principally responsible for the invention of revolutionary mathematics of
change.
In this rather infamous controversy between
two of the greatest minds that this planet has produced in recent history, the
journal Acta Eriditorum not only supported Leibniz, but virtually became a
mouthpiece for the Leibniz camp.
How the journal Acta Eriditorum got dragged
in into this bitter rivalry is a story as interesting as the whole episode
itself.
It all started when in the very beginning Leibniz
had published his work on the mathematics of changes in this very journal in
1684.
Newton, on the other hand, while having
developed his methods of fluxions as early as 1666, never published it at least
in mathematical notation until 1693.
The seminal paper of Leibniz was titled:
“Nova Methodus pro Maximis et Minimis, itenque tangentibus, quae nec fractas
nec irraitonales quantitates moratur, et singular pro illis calculi genus”
which in English translates into “New Method for Maxima and Minima, and for
tangents, that is not hindered by fractional or irrational quantities, and a
singular kind of calculus for the above mentioned.”
This paper was not only the birth of
mathematics of calculus but even the name calculus that we now use came from
the title of this paper.
This particular calculus is specifically
called “the calculus of infinitesimals” or “infinitesimal calculus” but more
broadly this area of mathematics that deals with functions and limits is
nowadays called mathematical analysis.
It is the gateway that links high school
mathematics to advance mathematics and hence it is one of the essential
concepts to grasp for any one keen on venturing into the sacred grounds of
higher mathematics.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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