History of calculus

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This is a sub-article to Calculus and History of mathematics.

Contents 1 Development of calculus 1.1 Integral calculus 1.2 Differential calculus 1.3 Mathematical analysis 1.4 Modern calculus 2 Newton and Leibniz 3 Integrals 4 Symbolic methods 5 Calculus of variations 6 Applications 7 See also 8 Notes 9 External links

[edit] Development of calculus

[edit] Integral calculus

Greek geometers are credited with a significant use of infinitesimals. Democritus is the first person recorded to consider seriously the division of objects into an infinite number of cross-sections, but his inability to rationalize discrete cross-sections with a cone's smooth slope prevented him from accepting the idea. At approximately the same time, Zeno of Elea discredited infinitesimals further by his articulation of the paradoxes which they create.

Antiphon and later Eudoxus are generally credited with implementing the method of exhaustion, which made it possible to compute the area and volume of regions and solids by breaking them up into an infinite number of recognizable shapes. Archimedes developed this method further, while also inventing heuristic methods which resemble modern day concepts somewhat. (See Archimedes' Quadrature of the Parabola and Archimedes on Spheres & Cylinders^[1].) It was not until the time of Newton that these methods were made obsolete. It should not be thought that infinitesimals were put on rigorous footing during this time, however. Only when it was supplemented by a proper geometric proof would Greek mathematicians accept a proposition as true. (See Archimedes' use of infinitesimals.)

Indian mathematicians produced a number of works with some ideas of calculus. The formula for the sum of the cubes was first written by Aryabhata circa 500 AD,^[2] which was an important step in the development of integral calculus.

Around 1000 AD, Ibn al-Haytham (known as Alhazen in the West), an Iraqi mathematician working in Egypt, was the first mathematician to derive the formula for the sum of the fourth powers. In turn, he developed a method for determining the general formula for the sum of any integral powers, which was fundamental to the development of integral calculus.^[2]

In the 17th century, Pierre de Fermat, among other things, is credited with an ingenious trick for evaluating the integral of any power function directly, thus providing a valuable clue to Newton and Leibniz in their development of the fundamental theorems of calculus.

At around the same time, there was also a great deal of work being done by Japanese mathematicians, particularly Kowa Seki. [2] He made a number of contributions, namely in methods of determining areas of figures using integrals, extending the method of exhaustion. While these methods of finding areas were made largely obsolete by the development of the fundamental theorems by Newton and Leibniz, they still show that a sophisticated knowledge of mathematics existed in 17th century Japan.

[edit] Differential calculus

The Greek mathematician Archimedes was the first to find the tangent to a curve, other than a circle, in a method akin to differential calculus. While studying the spiral, he separated a point's motion into two components, one radial motion component and one circular motion component, and then continued to add the two component motions together thereby finding the tangent to the curve.^[3]

The Indian mathematician-astronomer Aryabhata in 499 used a notion of infinitesimals and expressed an astronomical problem in the form of a basic differential equation.^[4] Manjula, in the 10th century, elaborated on this differential equation in a commentary. This equation eventually led Bhāskara II in the 12th century to develop the concept of a derivative representing infinitesimal change, and he described an early form of "Rolle's theorem".^[4][5]

In the late 12th century, the Persian mathematician Sharaf al-Din al-Tusi was the first to discover the derivative of cubic polynomials, an important result in differential calculus.^[6]

In the 15th century, an early version of the mean value theorem was first described by Parameshvara (1370–1460) from the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics in his commentaries on Govindasvāmi and Bhaskara II.^[7]

In 17th century Europe, Isaac Barrow, Pierre de Fermat, Blaise Pascal, John Wallis and others discussed the idea of a derivative. The first proof of Rolle's theorem was given by Michel Rolle in 1691 after the invention of modern calculus. The mean value theorem in its modern form was stated by Augustin Louis Cauchy (1789-1857) also after the invention of modern calculus.

[edit] Mathematical analysis

Main article: Mathematical analysis

Greek mathematicians such as Eudoxus and Archimedes made informal use of the concepts of limits and convergence when they used the method of exhaustion to compute the area and volume of regions and solids.^[8] In India, the 12th century mathematician Bhaskara conceived of differential calculus, and gave examples of the derivative and differential coefficient, along with a statement of what is now known as Rolle's theorem.

Mathematical analysis has its roots in work done by Madhava of Sangamagrama in the 14th century, along with later mathematician-astronomers of the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics, who described special cases of Taylor series, including the Madhava-Gregory series of the arctangent, the Madhava-Newton power series of sine and cosine, and the infinite series of π.^[9] Yuktibhasa, which some consider to be the first text on calculus, summarizes these results.^[10][11][12]

It has recently been conjectured that the discoveries of the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics were transmitted to Europe, though this is disputed.^[13] (See Possibility of transmission of Kerala School results to Europe.)

In the 15th century, a German cardinal named Nicholas of Cusa argued that rules made for finite quantities lose their validity when applied to infinite ones, thus putting to rest Zeno's paradoxes.

[edit] Modern calculus

James Gregory was able to prove a restricted version of the second fundamental theorem of calculus in the mid-17th century.

Newton and Leibniz are usually credited with the invention of modern calculus in the late 17th century. Their most important contributions were the development of the fundamental theorem of calculus. Also, Leibniz did a great deal of work with developing consistent and useful notation and concepts. Newton was the first to organize the field into one consistent subject, and also provided some of the first and most important applications, especially of integral calculus.

Important contributions were also made by Barrow, Descartes, de Fermat, Huygens, Wallis and many others.

[edit] Newton and Leibniz

Historically, there was much debate over whether it was Newton or Leibniz who first "invented" calculus. This argument, the Leibniz and Newton calculus controversy, involving Leibniz, who was German, and the Englishman Newton, led to a rift in the European mathematical community lasting over a century. Leibniz was the first to publish his investigations; however, it is well established that Newton had started his work several years prior to Leibniz and had already developed a theory of tangents by the time Leibniz became interested in the question. Much of the controversy centers on the question whether Leibniz had seen certain early manuscripts of Newton before publishing his own memoirs on the subject. Newton began his work on calculus no later than 1666, and Leibniz did not begin his work until 1673. Leibniz visited England in 1673 and again in 1676, and was shown some of Newton's unpublished writings. He also corresponded with several English scientists (as well as with Newton himself), and may have gained access to Newton's manuscripts through them. It is not known how much this may have influenced Leibniz. The initial accusations were made by students and supporters of the two great scientists at the turn of the century, but after 1711 both of them became personally involved, accusing each other of plagiarism.

The priority dispute had an effect of separating English-speaking mathematicians from those in the continental Europe for many years and, consequently, slowing down the development of mathematical analysis. Only in the 1820s, due to the efforts of the Analytical Society, Leibnizian analytical calculus became accepted in England. Today, both Newton and Leibniz are given credit for independently developing the basics of calculus. It is Leibniz, however, who is credited with giving the new discipline the name it is known by today: "calculus". Newton's name for it was "the science of fluents and fluxions".

The work of both Newton and Leibniz is reflected in the notation used today. Newton introduced the notation <math>\dot{f}</math> for the derivative of a function f. ^[14] Leibniz introduced the symbol <math>\int</math> for the integral and wrote the derivative of a function y of the variable x as <math>\frac{dy}{dx},</math> both of which are still in use.

[edit] Integrals

Niels Henrik Abel seems to have been the first to consider in a general way the question as to what differential expressions can be integrated in a finite form by the aid of ordinary functions, an investigation extended by Liouville. Cauchy early undertook the general theory of determining definite integrals, and the subject has been prominent during the 19th century. Frullani's theorem (1821), Bierens de Haan's work on the theory (1862) and his elaborate tables (1867), Dirichlet's lectures (1858) embodied in Meyer's treatise (1871), and numerous memoirs of Legendre, Poisson, Plana, Raabe, Sohncke, Schlömilch, Elliott, Leudesdorf, and Kronecker are among the noteworthy contributions.

Eulerian integrals were first studied by Euler and afterwards investigated by Legendre, by whom they were classed as Eulerian integrals of the first and second species, as follows:

<math>\int_0^1 x^{n-1}(1 - x)^{n-1}dx</math>

<math>\int_0^\infty e^{-x} x^{n-1}dx</math>

although these were not the exact forms of Euler's study. If n is an integer, it follows that <math>\int_0^\infty e^{-x}x^{n-1}dx = (n-1)!</math>, but the integral converges for all positive real <math>n</math> and defines an analytic continuation of the factorial function to all of the complex plane except for poles at zero and the negative integers. To it Legendre assigned the symbol <math>\Gamma</math>, and it is now called the gamma function. Besides being analytic over the positive reals, <math>\Gamma</math> also enjoys the uniquely defining property that <math>\log \Gamma</math> is convex, which aesthetically justifies this analytic continuation of the factorial function over any other analytic continuation. To the subject Dirichlet has contributed an important theorem (Liouville, 1839), which has been elaborated by Liouville, Catalan, Leslie Ellis, and others. On the evaluation of <math>\Gamma (x)</math> and <math>\log \Gamma (x)</math> Raabe (1843-44), Bauer (1859), and Gudermann (1845) have written. Legendre's great table appeared in 1816.

[edit] Symbolic methods

Symbolic methods may be traced back to Taylor, and the analogy between successive differentiation and ordinary exponentials had been observed by numerous writers before the nineteenth century. Arbogast (1800) was the first, however, to separate the symbol of operation from that of quantity in a differential equation. François (1812) and Servois (1814)^{[citation needed]} seem to have been the first to give correct rules on the subject. Hargreave (1848) applied these methods in his memoir on differential equations, and Boole freely employed them. Grassmann and Hermann Hankel made great use of the theory, the former in studying equations, the latter in his theory of complex numbers.

[edit] Calculus of variations

The calculus of variations may be said to begin with a problem of Johann Bernoulli's (1696). It immediately occupied the attention of Jakob Bernoulli and the Marquis de l'Hôpital, but Euler first elaborated the subject. His contributions began in 1733, and his Elementa Calculi Variationum gave to the science its name. Lagrange contributed extensively to the theory, and Legendre (1786) laid down a method, not entirely satisfactory, for the discrimination of maxima and minima. To this discrimination Brunacci (1810), Gauss (1829), Poisson (1831), Ostrogradsky (1834), and Jacobi (1837) have been among the contributors. An important general work is that of Sarrus (1842) which was condensed and improved by Cauchy (1844). Other valuable treatises and memoirs have been written by Strauch (1849), Jellett (1850), Hesse (1857), Clebsch (1858), and Carll (1885), but perhaps the most important work of the century is that of Weierstrass. His celebrated course on the theory is epoch-making, and it may be asserted that he was the first to place it on a firm and unquestionable foundation.

[edit] Applications

The application of the infinitesimal calculus to problems in physics and astronomy was contemporary with the origin of the science. All through the eighteenth century these applications were multiplied, until at its close Laplace and Lagrange had brought the whole range of the study of forces into the realm of analysis. To Lagrange (1773) we owe the introduction of the theory of the potential into dynamics, although the name "potential function" and the fundamental memoir of the subject are due to Green (1827, printed in 1828). The name "potential" is due to Gauss (1840), and the distinction between potential and potential function to Clausius. With its development are connected the names of Dirichlet, Riemann, von Neumann, Heine, Kronecker, Lipschitz, Christoffel, Kirchhoff, Beltrami, and many of the leading physicists of the century.

It is impossible in this place to enter into the great variety of other applications of analysis to physical problems. Among them are the investigations of Euler on vibrating chords; Sophie Germain on elastic membranes; Poisson, Lamé, Saint-Venant, and Clebsch on the elasticity of three-dimensional bodies; Fourier on heat diffusion; Fresnel on light; Maxwell, Helmholtz, and Hertz on electricity; Hansen, Hill, and Gyldén on astronomy; Maxwell on spherical harmonics; Lord Rayleigh on acoustics; and the contributions of Dirichlet, Weber, Kirchhoff, F. Neumann, Lord Kelvin, Clausius, Bjerknes, MacCullagh, and Fuhrmann to physics in general. The labors of Helmholtz should be especially mentioned, since he contributed to the theories of dynamics, electricity, etc., and brought his great analytical powers to bear on the fundamental axioms of mechanics as well as on those of pure mathematics.

Furthermore, infinitesimal calculus was introduced into the social sciences, starting with Neoclassical economics. Today, it is a valuable tool in mainstream economics.

[edit] See also

• Analytic geometry
• Calculus

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• A history of the calculus in the The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, 1996.fr:Histoire du calcul infinitésimal