About Calculus

	`About Calculus`
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What is calculus?

Coming from the Latin word for pebble, calculus is defined by the Webster's Dictionary as "a method of calculation, especially one of several highly systematic methods of treating problems by a special system of algebraic notations, as differential or integral calculus." In a few words, calculus is the study of change. Although change does not seem to be an important word, it is essentially what life consists of the most. Change is a very significant theme in anyone's life and calculus is precisely the study of this theme. Yet, the approach to this theme is mathematical and methodic. Calculus has numerous applications ranging from physics and chemistry to economics. Much like other fields of mathematics, calculus is not only significant for its use in other fields of study, it is implemented for solving otherwise rigorous geometric and algebraic problems.

History of calculus

Romans used "calculus" or pebble to count and gamble in their time of empirical rule. Later on, calculus came to mean computing and counting. Probably the oldest origins of calculus and its ideas come from Greece. They made problems and inquired about tangents, area, motion and the ideas of "infinity". Yet their contribution was mostly in questions. History went on and only specific, incomplete solutions to these questions came about. Descartes was the first one to introduce analytic geometry.

However, the true beginnings of calculus came about with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) and Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727). The British Newton contributed much insight, discovery and ideas to not only calculus, but also physics and other fields of mathematics. Leibniz, from Germany, started 8 years after Isaac Newton. With the two scientists' contributions, calculus started to advance after 1690 and become a complete and extremely useful field of mathematics.

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