Calculus is the
mathematical
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
study of continuous change, in the same way that
geometry
Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...
is the study of shape, and
algebra
Algebra is a branch of mathematics that deals with abstract systems, known as algebraic structures, and the manipulation of expressions within those systems. It is a generalization of arithmetic that introduces variables and algebraic ope ...
is the study of generalizations of
arithmetic operations
Arithmetic is an elementary branch of mathematics that deals with numerical operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and Division (mathematics), division. In a wider sense, it also includes exponentiation, extraction of nth root, ...
.
Originally called infinitesimal calculus or "the calculus of
infinitesimal
In mathematics, an infinitesimal number is a non-zero quantity that is closer to 0 than any non-zero real number is. The word ''infinitesimal'' comes from a 17th-century Modern Latin coinage ''infinitesimus'', which originally referred to the " ...
s", it has two major branches,
differential calculus
In mathematics, differential calculus is a subfield of calculus that studies the rates at which quantities change. It is one of the two traditional divisions of calculus, the other being integral calculus—the study of the area beneath a curve. ...
and
integral calculus
In mathematics, an integral is the continuous analog of a sum, which is used to calculate areas, volumes, and their generalizations. Integration, the process of computing an integral, is one of the two fundamental operations of calculus,Int ...
. The former concerns instantaneous
rates of change, and the
slope
In mathematics, the slope or gradient of a Line (mathematics), line is a number that describes the direction (geometry), direction of the line on a plane (geometry), plane. Often denoted by the letter ''m'', slope is calculated as the ratio of t ...
s of
curve
In mathematics, a curve (also called a curved line in older texts) is an object similar to a line, but that does not have to be straight.
Intuitively, a curve may be thought of as the trace left by a moving point. This is the definition that ...
s, while the latter concerns accumulation of quantities, and
area
Area is the measure of a region's size on a surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an open surface or the boundary of a three-di ...
s under or between curves. These two branches are related to each other by the
fundamental theorem of calculus
The fundamental theorem of calculus is a theorem that links the concept of derivative, differentiating a function (mathematics), function (calculating its slopes, or rate of change at every point on its domain) with the concept of integral, inte ...
. They make use of the fundamental notions of
convergence
Convergence may refer to:
Arts and media Literature
*''Convergence'' (book series), edited by Ruth Nanda Anshen
*Convergence (comics), "Convergence" (comics), two separate story lines published by DC Comics:
**A four-part crossover storyline that ...
of
infinite sequence
In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is call ...
s and
infinite series
In mathematics, a series is, roughly speaking, an addition of infinitely many terms, one after the other. The study of series is a major part of calculus and its generalization, mathematical analysis. Series are used in most areas of mathemati ...
to a well-defined
limit. It is the "mathematical backbone" for dealing with problems where variables change with time or another reference variable.
Infinitesimal calculus was formulated separately in the late 17th century by
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton () was an English polymath active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author. Newton was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment that followed ...
and
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (or Leibnitz; – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat who is credited, alongside Sir Isaac Newton, with the creation of calculus in addition to ...
. Later work, including
codifying the idea of limits, put these developments on a more solid conceptual footing. The concepts and techniques found in calculus have diverse applications in
science
Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
,
engineering
Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...
, and other branches of mathematics.
Etymology
In
mathematics education
In contemporary education, mathematics education—known in Europe as the didactics or pedagogy of mathematics—is the practice of teaching, learning, and carrying out Scholarly method, scholarly research into the transfer of mathematical know ...
, ''calculus'' is an abbreviation of both
infinitesimal calculus
Calculus is the mathematical study of continuous change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape, and algebra is the study of generalizations of arithmetic operations.
Originally called infinitesimal calculus or "the calculus of ...
and
integral calculus
In mathematics, an integral is the continuous analog of a sum, which is used to calculate areas, volumes, and their generalizations. Integration, the process of computing an integral, is one of the two fundamental operations of calculus,Int ...
, which denotes courses of elementary
mathematical analysis
Analysis is the branch of mathematics dealing with continuous functions, limit (mathematics), limits, and related theories, such as Derivative, differentiation, Integral, integration, measure (mathematics), measure, infinite sequences, series ( ...
.
In
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
, the word ''calculus'' means “small pebble”, (the
diminutive
A diminutive is a word obtained by modifying a root word to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment, and sometimes to belittle s ...
of ''
calx
Calx is a substance formed from an ore or mineral that has been heated. Calx, especially of a metal, is now understood to be an oxide. The term is also sometimes used in older texts on artists' techniques to mean calcium oxide.
According to the ...
,'' meaning "stone"), a meaning which still
persists in medicine. Because such pebbles were used for counting out distances, tallying votes, and doing
abacus
An abacus ( abaci or abacuses), also called a counting frame, is a hand-operated calculating tool which was used from ancient times in the ancient Near East, Europe, China, and Russia, until the adoption of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system. A ...
arithmetic, the word came to be the Latin word for ''calculation''. In this sense, it was used in English at least as early as 1672, several years before the publications of Leibniz and Newton, who wrote their mathematical texts in Latin.
In addition to differential calculus and integral calculus, the term is also used for naming specific methods of computation or theories that imply some sort of computation. Examples of this usage include
propositional calculus
The propositional calculus is a branch of logic. It is also called propositional logic, statement logic, sentential calculus, sentential logic, or sometimes zeroth-order logic. Sometimes, it is called ''first-order'' propositional logic to contra ...
,
Ricci calculus Ricci () is an Italian surname. Notable Riccis Arts and entertainment
* Antonio Ricci (painter) (c.1565–c.1635), Spanish Baroque painter of Italian origin
* Christina Ricci (born 1980), American actress
* Clara Ross Ricci (1858-1954), British ...
,
calculus of variations
The calculus of variations (or variational calculus) is a field of mathematical analysis that uses variations, which are small changes in Function (mathematics), functions
and functional (mathematics), functionals, to find maxima and minima of f ...
,
lambda calculus
In mathematical logic, the lambda calculus (also written as ''λ''-calculus) is a formal system for expressing computability, computation based on function Abstraction (computer science), abstraction and function application, application using var ...
,
sequent calculus
In mathematical logic, sequent calculus is a style of formal logical argumentation in which every line of a proof is a conditional tautology (called a sequent by Gerhard Gentzen) instead of an unconditional tautology. Each conditional tautolog ...
, and
process calculus
In computer science, the process calculi (or process algebras) are a diverse family of related approaches for formally modelling concurrent systems. Process calculi provide a tool for the high-level description of interactions, communications, and ...
. Furthermore, the term "calculus" has variously been applied in ethics and philosophy, for such systems as
Bentham's felicific calculus
The felicific calculus is an algorithm formulated by utilitarianism, utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) for calculating the degree or amount of pleasure that a specific action is likely to induce. Bentham, an ethics, ethical he ...
, and the
ethical calculus
An ethical calculus is the application of mathematics to calculate issues in ethics.
Scope
Generally, ethical calculus refers to any method of determining a course of action in a circumstance that is not explicitly evaluated in one's ethical cod ...
.
History
Modern calculus was developed in 17th-century Europe by
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton () was an English polymath active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author. Newton was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment that followed ...
and
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (or Leibnitz; – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat who is credited, alongside Sir Isaac Newton, with the creation of calculus in addition to ...
(independently of each other, first publishing around the same time) but elements of it first appeared in ancient Egypt and later Greece, then in China and the Middle East, and still later again in medieval Europe and India.
Ancient precursors
Egypt
Calculations of
volume
Volume is a measure of regions in three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units (such as the cubic metre and litre) or by various imperial or US customary units (such as the gallon, quart, cubic inch) ...
and
area
Area is the measure of a region's size on a surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an open surface or the boundary of a three-di ...
, one goal of integral calculus, can be found in the
Egyptian
''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt.
Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to:
Nations and ethnic groups
* Egyptians, a national group in North Africa
** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...
Moscow papyrus (), but the formulae are simple instructions, with no indication as to how they were obtained.
Greece

Laying the foundations for integral calculus and foreshadowing the concept of the limit, ancient Greek mathematician
Eudoxus of Cnidus
Eudoxus of Cnidus (; , ''Eúdoxos ho Knídios''; ) was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek Ancient Greek astronomy, astronomer, Greek mathematics, mathematician, doctor, and lawmaker. He was a student of Archytas and Plato. All of his original work ...
() developed the
method of exhaustion
The method of exhaustion () is a method of finding the area of a shape by inscribing inside it a sequence of polygons (one at a time) whose areas converge to the area of the containing shape. If the sequence is correctly constructed, the differ ...
to prove the formulas for cone and pyramid volumes.
During the
Hellenistic period
In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...
, this method was further developed by
Archimedes
Archimedes of Syracuse ( ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Greek mathematics, mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and Invention, inventor from the ancient city of Syracuse, Sicily, Syracuse in History of Greek and Hellenis ...
(BC), who combined it with a concept of the
indivisibles—a precursor to
infinitesimals
In mathematics, an infinitesimal number is a non-zero quantity that is closer to 0 than any non-zero real number is. The word ''infinitesimal'' comes from a 17th-century Modern Latin coinage ''infinitesimus'', which originally referred to the " ...
—allowing him to solve several problems now treated by integral calculus. In ''
The Method of Mechanical Theorems
''The Method of Mechanical Theorems'' (), also referred to as ''The Method'', is one of the major surviving works of the ancient Greece, ancient Greek polymath Archimedes. ''The Method'' takes the form of a letter from Archimedes to Eratosthenes, ...
'' he describes, for example, calculating the
center of gravity
In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the barycenter or balance point) is the unique point at any given time where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. For ...
of a solid
hemisphere
Hemisphere may refer to:
In geometry
* Hemisphere (geometry), a half of a sphere
As half of Earth or any spherical astronomical object
* A hemisphere of Earth
** Northern Hemisphere
** Southern Hemisphere
** Eastern Hemisphere
** Western Hemi ...
, the center of gravity of a
frustum
In geometry, a ; (: frusta or frustums) is the portion of a polyhedron, solid (normally a pyramid (geometry), pyramid or a cone (geometry), cone) that lies between two parallel planes cutting the solid. In the case of a pyramid, the base faces a ...
of a circular
paraboloid
In geometry, a paraboloid is a quadric surface that has exactly one axial symmetry, axis of symmetry and no central symmetry, center of symmetry. The term "paraboloid" is derived from parabola, which refers to a conic section that has a similar p ...
, and the area of a region bounded by a
parabola
In mathematics, a parabola is a plane curve which is Reflection symmetry, mirror-symmetrical and is approximately U-shaped. It fits several superficially different Mathematics, mathematical descriptions, which can all be proved to define exactl ...
and one of its
secant line
In geometry, a secant is a line (geometry), line that intersects a curve at a minimum of two distinct Point (geometry), points..
The word ''secant'' comes from the Latin word ''secare'', meaning ''to cut''. In the case of a circle, a secant inter ...
s.
China
The method of exhaustion was later discovered independently in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
by
Liu Hui
Liu Hui () was a Chinese mathematician who published a commentary in 263 CE on ''Jiu Zhang Suan Shu ( The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art).'' He was a descendant of the Marquis of Zixiang of the Eastern Han dynasty and lived in the state ...
in the 3rd century AD to find the area of a circle.
In the 5th century AD,
Zu Gengzhi, son of
Zu Chongzhi
Zu Chongzhi (; 429 – 500), courtesy name Wenyuan (), was a Chinese astronomer, inventor, mathematician, politician, and writer during the Liu Song and Southern Qi dynasties. He was most notable for calculating pi as between 3.1415926 and 3.1415 ...
, established a method that would later be called
Cavalieri's principle
In geometry, Cavalieri's principle, a modern implementation of the method of indivisibles, named after Bonaventura Cavalieri, is as follows:
* 2-dimensional case: Suppose two regions in a plane are included between two parallel lines in that pl ...
to find the volume of a
sphere
A sphere (from Ancient Greek, Greek , ) is a surface (mathematics), surface analogous to the circle, a curve. In solid geometry, a sphere is the Locus (mathematics), set of points that are all at the same distance from a given point in three ...
.
Medieval
Middle East
In the Middle East,
Hasan Ibn al-Haytham, Latinized as Alhazen (AD) derived a formula for the sum of
fourth powers. He determined the equations to calculate the area enclosed by the curve represented by
(which translates to the integral
in contemporary notation), for any given non-negative integer value of
.He used the results to carry out what would now be called an
integration of this function, where the formulae for the sums of integral squares and fourth powers allowed him to calculate the volume of a
paraboloid
In geometry, a paraboloid is a quadric surface that has exactly one axial symmetry, axis of symmetry and no central symmetry, center of symmetry. The term "paraboloid" is derived from parabola, which refers to a conic section that has a similar p ...
.
India
Bhāskara II
Bhāskara II ('; 1114–1185), also known as Bhāskarāchārya (), was an Indian people, Indian polymath, Indian mathematicians, mathematician, astronomer and engineer. From verses in his main work, Siddhānta Śiromaṇi, it can be inferre ...
() was acquainted with some ideas of differential calculus and suggested that the "differential coefficient" vanishes at an extremum value of the function. In his astronomical work, he gave a procedure that looked like a precursor to infinitesimal methods. Namely, if
then
This can be interpreted as the discovery that
cosine
In mathematics, sine and cosine are trigonometric functions of an angle. The sine and cosine of an acute angle are defined in the context of a right triangle: for the specified angle, its sine is the ratio of the length of the side opposite that ...
is the derivative of
sine
In mathematics, sine and cosine are trigonometric functions of an angle. The sine and cosine of an acute angle are defined in the context of a right triangle: for the specified angle, its sine is the ratio of the length of the side opposite th ...
. In the 14th century, Indian mathematicians gave a non-rigorous method, resembling differentiation, applicable to some trigonometric functions.
Madhava of Sangamagrama
Mādhava of Sangamagrāma (Mādhavan) Availabl/ref> () was an Indian mathematician and astronomer who is considered to be the founder of the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics in the Late Middle Ages. Madhava made pioneering contributio ...
and the
Kerala School of Astronomy and Mathematics
The Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics or the Kerala school was a school of Indian mathematics, mathematics and Indian astronomy, astronomy founded by Madhava of Sangamagrama in Kingdom of Tanur, Tirur, Malappuram district, Malappuram, K ...
stated components of calculus. They studied series equivalent to the Maclaurin expansions of , , and more than two hundred years before their introduction in Europe. According to
Victor J. Katz they were not able to "combine many differing ideas under the two unifying themes of the
derivative
In mathematics, the derivative is a fundamental tool that quantifies the sensitivity to change of a function's output with respect to its input. The derivative of a function of a single variable at a chosen input value, when it exists, is t ...
and the
integral
In mathematics, an integral is the continuous analog of a Summation, sum, which is used to calculate area, areas, volume, volumes, and their generalizations. Integration, the process of computing an integral, is one of the two fundamental oper ...
, show the connection between the two, and turn calculus into the great problem-solving tool we have today".
[
]
Modern
Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler (27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, Natural philosophy, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best know ...
's work ''Stereometria Doliorum'' (1615) formed the basis of integral calculus. Kepler developed a method to calculate the area of an ellipse by adding up the lengths of many radii drawn from a focus of the ellipse.
Significant work was performed in a treatise, the origin being Kepler's methods,[ written by ]Bonaventura Cavalieri
Bonaventura Francesco Cavalieri (; 1598 – 30 November 1647) was an Italian mathematician and a Jesuati, Jesuate. He is known for his work on the problems of optics and motion (physics), motion, work on indivisibles, the precursors of infin ...
, who argued that volumes and areas should be computed as the sums of the volumes and areas of infinitesimally thin cross-sections. The ideas were similar to Archimedes' in '' The Method'', but this treatise is believed to have been lost in the 13th century and was only rediscovered in the early 20th century, and so would have been unknown to Cavalieri. Cavalieri's work was not well respected since his methods could lead to erroneous results, and the infinitesimal quantities he introduced were disreputable at first.
The formal study of calculus brought together Cavalieri's infinitesimals with the calculus of finite differences
A finite difference is a mathematical expression of the form . Finite differences (or the associated difference quotients) are often used as approximations of derivatives, such as in numerical differentiation.
The difference operator, commonly d ...
developed in Europe at around the same time. Pierre de Fermat
Pierre de Fermat (; ; 17 August 1601 – 12 January 1665) was a French mathematician who is given credit for early developments that led to infinitesimal calculus, including his technique of adequality. In particular, he is recognized for his d ...
, claiming that he borrowed from Diophantus
Diophantus of Alexandria () (; ) was a Greek mathematician who was the author of the '' Arithmetica'' in thirteen books, ten of which are still extant, made up of arithmetical problems that are solved through algebraic equations.
Although Jose ...
, introduced the concept of adequality
Adequality is a technique developed by Pierre de Fermat in his treatise ''Methodus ad disquirendam maximam et minimam'' (a Latin treatise circulated in France c. 1636 ) to calculate maxima and minima of functions, tangents to curves, area, center o ...
, which represented equality up to an infinitesimal error term. The combination was achieved by John Wallis
John Wallis (; ; ) was an English clergyman and mathematician, who is given partial credit for the development of infinitesimal calculus.
Between 1643 and 1689 Wallis served as chief cryptographer for Parliament and, later, the royal court. ...
, Isaac Barrow
Isaac Barrow (October 1630 – 4 May 1677) was an English Christian theologian and mathematician who is generally given credit for his early role in the development of infinitesimal calculus; in particular, for proof of the fundamental theorem ...
, and James Gregory, the latter two proving themselves to be predecessors to the second fundamental theorem of calculus around 1670.
The product rule
In calculus, the product rule (or Leibniz rule or Leibniz product rule) is a formula used to find the derivatives of products of two or more functions. For two functions, it may be stated in Lagrange's notation as (u \cdot v)' = u ' \cdot v ...
and chain rule
In calculus, the chain rule is a formula that expresses the derivative of the Function composition, composition of two differentiable functions and in terms of the derivatives of and . More precisely, if h=f\circ g is the function such that h ...
, the notions of higher derivative
In mathematics, the derivative is a fundamental tool that quantifies the sensitivity to change of a function's output with respect to its input. The derivative of a function of a single variable at a chosen input value, when it exists, is t ...
s and Taylor series
In mathematics, the Taylor series or Taylor expansion of a function is an infinite sum of terms that are expressed in terms of the function's derivatives at a single point. For most common functions, the function and the sum of its Taylor ser ...
, and of analytic function
In mathematics, an analytic function is a function that is locally given by a convergent power series. There exist both real analytic functions and complex analytic functions. Functions of each type are infinitely differentiable, but complex ...
s were used by Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton () was an English polymath active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author. Newton was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment that followed ...
in an idiosyncratic notation which he applied to solve problems of mathematical physics
Mathematical physics is the development of mathematics, mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The ''Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the de ...
. In his works, Newton rephrased his ideas to suit the mathematical idiom of the time, replacing calculations with infinitesimals by equivalent geometrical arguments which were considered beyond reproach. He used the methods of calculus to solve the problem of planetary motion, the shape of the surface of a rotating fluid, the oblateness of the earth, the motion of a weight sliding on a cycloid
In geometry, a cycloid is the curve traced by a point on a circle as it Rolling, rolls along a Line (geometry), straight line without slipping. A cycloid is a specific form of trochoid and is an example of a roulette (curve), roulette, a curve g ...
, and many other problems discussed in his ''Principia Mathematica
The ''Principia Mathematica'' (often abbreviated ''PM'') is a three-volume work on the foundations of mathematics written by the mathematician–philosophers Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell and published in 1910, 1912, and 1 ...
'' (1687). In other work, he developed series expansions for functions, including fractional and irrational powers, and it was clear that he understood the principles of the Taylor series
In mathematics, the Taylor series or Taylor expansion of a function is an infinite sum of terms that are expressed in terms of the function's derivatives at a single point. For most common functions, the function and the sum of its Taylor ser ...
. He did not publish all these discoveries, and at this time infinitesimal methods were still considered disreputable.
These ideas were arranged into a true calculus of infinitesimals by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (or Leibnitz; – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat who is credited, alongside Sir Isaac Newton, with the creation of calculus in addition to ...
, who was originally accused of plagiarism
Plagiarism is the representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 ''Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close ...
by Newton. He is now regarded as an independent inventor of and contributor to calculus. His contribution was to provide a clear set of rules for working with infinitesimal quantities, allowing the computation of second and higher derivatives, and providing the product rule
In calculus, the product rule (or Leibniz rule or Leibniz product rule) is a formula used to find the derivatives of products of two or more functions. For two functions, it may be stated in Lagrange's notation as (u \cdot v)' = u ' \cdot v ...
and chain rule
In calculus, the chain rule is a formula that expresses the derivative of the Function composition, composition of two differentiable functions and in terms of the derivatives of and . More precisely, if h=f\circ g is the function such that h ...
, in their differential and integral forms. Unlike Newton, Leibniz put painstaking effort into his choices of notation.
Today, Leibniz and Newton are usually both given credit for independently inventing and developing calculus. Newton was the first to apply calculus to general physics
Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
. Leibniz developed much of the notation used in calculus today. The basic insights that both Newton and Leibniz provided led to their development of the laws of differentiation and integration, their emphasis that differentiation and integration are inverse processes, their development of methods for calculating the second and higher derivatives, and their statement of the notion for approximating a polynomial series.
When Newton and Leibniz first published their results, there was great controversy over which mathematician (and therefore which country) deserved credit. Newton derived his results first (later to be published in his ''Method of Fluxions
''Method of Fluxions'' () is a mathematical treatise by Sir Isaac Newton which served as the earliest written formulation of modern calculus. The book was completed in 1671 and posthumously published in 1736. Background
Fluxion is Newton's term ...
''), but Leibniz published his " Nova Methodus pro Maximis et Minimis" first. Newton claimed Leibniz stole ideas from his unpublished notes, which Newton had shared with a few members of the Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
. This controversy divided English-speaking mathematicians from continental European mathematicians for many years, to the detriment of English mathematics. A careful examination of the papers of Leibniz and Newton shows that they arrived at their results independently, with Leibniz starting first with integration and Newton with differentiation. It is Leibniz, however, who gave the new discipline its name. Newton called his calculus " the science of fluxions", a term that endured in English schools into the 19th century. The first complete treatise on calculus to be written in English and use the Leibniz notation was not published until 1815.
Since the time of Leibniz and Newton, many mathematicians have contributed to the continuing development of calculus. One of the first and most complete works on both infinitesimal and integral calculus
In mathematics, an integral is the continuous analog of a sum, which is used to calculate areas, volumes, and their generalizations. Integration, the process of computing an integral, is one of the two fundamental operations of calculus,Int ...
was written in 1748 by Maria Gaetana Agnesi
Maria Gaetana Agnesi (16 May 1718 – 9 January 1799) was an Italians, Italian mathematician, philosopher, Theology, theologian, and humanitarianism, humanitarian. She was the first woman to write a mathematics handbook and the list of women in ...
.
Foundations
In calculus, ''foundations'' refers to the rigorous
Rigour (British English) or rigor (American English; see spelling differences) describes a condition of stiffness or strictness. These constraints may be environmentally imposed, such as "the rigours of famine"; logically imposed, such as math ...
development of the subject from axiom
An axiom, postulate, or assumption is a statement that is taken to be true, to serve as a premise or starting point for further reasoning and arguments. The word comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning 'that which is thought worthy or ...
s and definitions. In early calculus, the use of infinitesimal
In mathematics, an infinitesimal number is a non-zero quantity that is closer to 0 than any non-zero real number is. The word ''infinitesimal'' comes from a 17th-century Modern Latin coinage ''infinitesimus'', which originally referred to the " ...
quantities was thought unrigorous and was fiercely criticized by several authors, most notably Michel Rolle
Michel Rolle (21 April 1652 – 8 November 1719) was a French mathematician. He is best known for Rolle's theorem (1691). He is also the co-inventor in Europe of Gaussian elimination (1690).
Life
Rolle was born in Ambert, Basse-Auvergne. Ro ...
and Bishop Berkeley
George Berkeley ( ; 12 March 168514 January 1753), known as Bishop Berkeley (Bishop of Cloyne of the Anglican Church of Ireland), was an Anglo-Irish philosopher, writer, and clergyman who is regarded as the founder of "immaterialism", a philos ...
. Berkeley famously described infinitesimals as the ghosts of departed quantities
''The Analyst'' (subtitled ''A Discourse Addressed to an Infidel Mathematician: Wherein It Is Examined Whether the Object, Principles, and Inferences of the Modern Analysis Are More Distinctly Conceived, or More Evidently Deduced, Than Religious ...
in his book ''The Analyst
''The Analyst'' (subtitled ''A Discourse Addressed to an Infidel Mathematician: Wherein It Is Examined Whether the Object, Principles, and Inferences of the Modern Analysis Are More Distinctly Conceived, or More Evidently Deduced, Than Religious ...
'' in 1734. Working out a rigorous foundation for calculus occupied mathematicians for much of the century following Newton and Leibniz, and is still to some extent an active area of research today.
Several mathematicians, including Maclaurin, tried to prove the soundness of using infinitesimals, but it would not be until 150 years later when, due to the work of Cauchy
Baron Augustin-Louis Cauchy ( , , ; ; 21 August 1789 – 23 May 1857) was a French mathematician, engineer, and physicist. He was one of the first to rigorously state and prove the key theorems of calculus (thereby creating real a ...
and Weierstrass
Karl Theodor Wilhelm Weierstrass (; ; 31 October 1815 – 19 February 1897) was a German mathematician often cited as the " father of modern analysis". Despite leaving university without a degree, he studied mathematics and trained as a school t ...
, a way was finally found to avoid mere "notions" of infinitely small quantities. The foundations of differential and integral calculus had been laid. In Cauchy's '' Cours d'Analyse'', we find a broad range of foundational approaches, including a definition of continuity in terms of infinitesimals, and a (somewhat imprecise) prototype of an (ε, δ)-definition of limit
Although the function is not defined at zero, as becomes closer and closer to zero, becomes arbitrarily close to 1. In other words, the limit of as approaches zero, equals 1.
In mathematics, the limit of a function is a fundame ...
in the definition of differentiation. In his work, Weierstrass formalized the concept of limit and eliminated infinitesimals (although his definition can validate nilsquare
In mathematics, an element x of a ring R is called nilpotent if there exists some positive integer n, called the index (or sometimes the degree), such that x^n=0.
The term, along with its sister idempotent, was introduced by Benjamin Peirce in t ...
infinitesimals). Following the work of Weierstrass, it eventually became common to base calculus on limits instead of infinitesimal quantities, though the subject is still occasionally called "infinitesimal calculus". Bernhard Riemann
Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann (; ; 17September 182620July 1866) was a German mathematician who made profound contributions to analysis, number theory, and differential geometry. In the field of real analysis, he is mostly known for the f ...
used these ideas to give a precise definition of the integral. It was also during this period that the ideas of calculus were generalized to the complex plane
In mathematics, the complex plane is the plane (geometry), plane formed by the complex numbers, with a Cartesian coordinate system such that the horizontal -axis, called the real axis, is formed by the real numbers, and the vertical -axis, call ...
with the development of complex analysis
Complex analysis, traditionally known as the theory of functions of a complex variable, is the branch of mathematical analysis that investigates functions of complex numbers. It is helpful in many branches of mathematics, including algebraic ...
.
In modern mathematics, the foundations of calculus are included in the field of real analysis
In mathematics, the branch of real analysis studies the behavior of real numbers, sequences and series of real numbers, and real functions. Some particular properties of real-valued sequences and functions that real analysis studies include co ...
, which contains full definitions and proofs of the theorems of calculus. The reach of calculus has also been greatly extended. Henri Lebesgue
Henri Léon Lebesgue (; ; June 28, 1875 – July 26, 1941) was a French mathematician known for his Lebesgue integration, theory of integration, which was a generalization of the 17th-century concept of integration—summing the area between an ...
invented measure theory
In mathematics, the concept of a measure is a generalization and formalization of geometrical measures (length, area, volume) and other common notions, such as magnitude (mathematics), magnitude, mass, and probability of events. These seemingl ...
, based on earlier developments by Émile Borel
Félix Édouard Justin Émile Borel (; 7 January 1871 – 3 February 1956) was a French people, French mathematician and politician. As a mathematician, he was known for his founding work in the areas of measure theory and probability.
Biograp ...
, and used it to define integrals of all but the most pathological
Pathology is the study of disease. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in the context of modern medical treatme ...
functions. Laurent Schwartz
Laurent-Moïse Schwartz (; 5 March 1915 – 4 July 2002) was a French mathematician. He pioneered the theory of Distribution (mathematics), distributions, which gives a well-defined meaning to objects such as the Dirac delta function. He was awar ...
introduced distributions, which can be used to take the derivative of any function whatsoever.
Limits are not the only rigorous approach to the foundation of calculus. Another way is to use Abraham Robinson
Abraham Robinson (born Robinsohn; October 6, 1918 – April 11, 1974) was a mathematician who is most widely known for development of nonstandard analysis, a mathematically rigorous system whereby infinitesimal and infinite numbers were reincorp ...
's non-standard analysis
The history of calculus is fraught with philosophical debates about the meaning and logical validity of fluxions or infinitesimal numbers. The standard way to resolve these debates is to define the operations of calculus using (ε, δ)-definitio ...
. Robinson's approach, developed in the 1960s, uses technical machinery from mathematical logic
Mathematical logic is the study of Logic#Formal logic, formal logic within mathematics. Major subareas include model theory, proof theory, set theory, and recursion theory (also known as computability theory). Research in mathematical logic com ...
to augment the real number system with infinitesimal
In mathematics, an infinitesimal number is a non-zero quantity that is closer to 0 than any non-zero real number is. The word ''infinitesimal'' comes from a 17th-century Modern Latin coinage ''infinitesimus'', which originally referred to the " ...
and infinite numbers, as in the original Newton-Leibniz conception. The resulting numbers are called hyperreal number
In mathematics, hyperreal numbers are an extension of the real numbers to include certain classes of infinite and infinitesimal numbers. A hyperreal number x is said to be finite if, and only if, , x, for some integer s, and they can be used to give a Leibniz-like development of the usual rules of calculus. There is also smooth infinitesimal analysis, which differs from non-standard analysis in that it mandates neglecting higher-power infinitesimals during derivations. Based on the ideas of F. W. Lawvere
Francis William Lawvere (; February 9, 1937 – January 23, 2023) was an American mathematician known for his work in category theory, topos theory and the philosophy of mathematics.
Biography
Born in Muncie, Indiana, and raised on a farm outsi ...
and employing the methods of category theory
Category theory is a general theory of mathematical structures and their relations. It was introduced by Samuel Eilenberg and Saunders Mac Lane in the middle of the 20th century in their foundational work on algebraic topology. Category theory ...
, smooth infinitesimal analysis views all functions as being continuous
Continuity or continuous may refer to:
Mathematics
* Continuity (mathematics), the opposing concept to discreteness; common examples include
** Continuous probability distribution or random variable in probability and statistics
** Continuous ...
and incapable of being expressed in terms of discrete
Discrete may refer to:
*Discrete particle or quantum in physics, for example in quantum theory
* Discrete device, an electronic component with just one circuit element, either passive or active, other than an integrated circuit
* Discrete group, ...
entities. One aspect of this formulation is that the law of excluded middle
In logic, the law of excluded middle or the principle of excluded middle states that for every proposition, either this proposition or its negation is true. It is one of the three laws of thought, along with the law of noncontradiction and t ...
does not hold. The law of excluded middle is also rejected in constructive mathematics
In the philosophy of mathematics, constructivism asserts that it is necessary to find (or "construct") a specific example of a mathematical object in order to prove that an example exists. Contrastingly, in classical mathematics, one can prove th ...
, a branch of mathematics that insists that proofs of the existence of a number, function, or other mathematical object should give a construction of the object. Reformulations of calculus in a constructive framework are generally part of the subject of constructive analysis
In mathematics, constructive analysis is mathematical analysis done according to some principles of constructive mathematics.
Introduction
The name of the subject contrasts with ''classical analysis'', which in this context means analysis done acc ...
.
Significance
While many of the ideas of calculus had been developed earlier in Greece
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...
, China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
, India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
, Iraq, Persia, and Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
, the use of calculus began in Europe, during the 17th century, when Newton and Leibniz built on the work of earlier mathematicians to introduce its basic principles. The Hungarian polymath John von Neumann
John von Neumann ( ; ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian and American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist and engineer. Von Neumann had perhaps the widest coverage of any mathematician of his time, in ...
wrote of this work,
Applications of differential calculus include computations involving velocity
Velocity is a measurement of speed in a certain direction of motion. It is a fundamental concept in kinematics, the branch of classical mechanics that describes the motion of physical objects. Velocity is a vector (geometry), vector Physical q ...
and acceleration
In mechanics, acceleration is the Rate (mathematics), rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time. Acceleration is one of several components of kinematics, the study of motion. Accelerations are Euclidean vector, vector ...
, the slope
In mathematics, the slope or gradient of a Line (mathematics), line is a number that describes the direction (geometry), direction of the line on a plane (geometry), plane. Often denoted by the letter ''m'', slope is calculated as the ratio of t ...
of a curve, and optimization
Mathematical optimization (alternatively spelled ''optimisation'') or mathematical programming is the selection of a best element, with regard to some criteria, from some set of available alternatives. It is generally divided into two subfiel ...
. Applications of integral calculus include computations involving area, volume
Volume is a measure of regions in three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units (such as the cubic metre and litre) or by various imperial or US customary units (such as the gallon, quart, cubic inch) ...
, arc length
Arc length is the distance between two points along a section of a curve. Development of a formulation of arc length suitable for applications to mathematics and the sciences is a problem in vector calculus and in differential geometry. In the ...
, center of mass
In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the barycenter or balance point) is the unique point at any given time where the weight function, weighted relative position (vector), position of the d ...
, work
Work may refer to:
* Work (human activity), intentional activity people perform to support themselves, others, or the community
** Manual labour, physical work done by humans
** House work, housework, or homemaking
** Working animal, an ani ...
, and pressure
Pressure (symbol: ''p'' or ''P'') is the force applied perpendicular to the surface of an object per unit area over which that force is distributed. Gauge pressure (also spelled ''gage'' pressure)The preferred spelling varies by country and eve ...
. More advanced applications include power series
In mathematics, a power series (in one variable) is an infinite series of the form
\sum_^\infty a_n \left(x - c\right)^n = a_0 + a_1 (x - c) + a_2 (x - c)^2 + \dots
where ''a_n'' represents the coefficient of the ''n''th term and ''c'' is a co ...
and Fourier series
A Fourier series () is an Series expansion, expansion of a periodic function into a sum of trigonometric functions. The Fourier series is an example of a trigonometric series. By expressing a function as a sum of sines and cosines, many problems ...
.
Calculus is also used to gain a more precise understanding of the nature of space, time, and motion. For centuries, mathematicians and philosophers wrestled with paradoxes involving division by zero
In mathematics, division by zero, division (mathematics), division where the divisor (denominator) is 0, zero, is a unique and problematic special case. Using fraction notation, the general example can be written as \tfrac a0, where a is the di ...
or sums of infinitely many numbers. These questions arise in the study of motion
In physics, motion is when an object changes its position with respect to a reference point in a given time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed, and frame of reference to an o ...
and area. The ancient Greek
Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
philosopher Zeno of Elea
Zeno of Elea (; ; ) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Elea, in Southern Italy (Magna Graecia). He was a student of Parmenides and one of the Eleatics. Zeno defended his instructor's belief in monism, the idea that only one single en ...
gave several famous examples of such paradoxes
A paradox is a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation. It is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true or apparently true premises, leads to a seemingly self-contradictor ...
. Calculus provides tools, especially the limit and the infinite series
In mathematics, a series is, roughly speaking, an addition of infinitely many terms, one after the other. The study of series is a major part of calculus and its generalization, mathematical analysis. Series are used in most areas of mathemati ...
, that resolve the paradoxes.
Principles
Limits and infinitesimals
Calculus is usually developed by working with very small quantities. Historically, the first method of doing so was by infinitesimal
In mathematics, an infinitesimal number is a non-zero quantity that is closer to 0 than any non-zero real number is. The word ''infinitesimal'' comes from a 17th-century Modern Latin coinage ''infinitesimus'', which originally referred to the " ...
s. These are objects which can be treated like real numbers but which are, in some sense, "infinitely small". For example, an infinitesimal number could be greater than 0, but less than any number in the sequence 1, 1/2, 1/3, ... and thus less than any positive real number
In mathematics, a real number is a number that can be used to measure a continuous one- dimensional quantity such as a duration or temperature. Here, ''continuous'' means that pairs of values can have arbitrarily small differences. Every re ...
. From this point of view, calculus is a collection of techniques for manipulating infinitesimals. The symbols and were taken to be infinitesimal, and the derivative was their ratio.
The infinitesimal approach fell out of favor in the 19th century because it was difficult to make the notion of an infinitesimal precise. In the late 19th century, infinitesimals were replaced within academia by the epsilon, delta approach to limits
Limit or Limits may refer to:
Arts and media
* ''Limit'' (manga), a manga by Keiko Suenobu
* ''Limit'' (film), a South Korean film
* Limit (music), a way to characterize harmony
* "Limit" (song), a 2016 single by Luna Sea
* "Limits", a 2009 ...
. Limits describe the behavior of a function
Function or functionality may refer to:
Computing
* Function key, a type of key on computer keyboards
* Function model, a structured representation of processes in a system
* Function object or functor or functionoid, a concept of object-orie ...
at a certain input in terms of its values at nearby inputs. They capture small-scale behavior using the intrinsic structure of the real number system
In mathematics, a real number is a number that can be used to measure a continuous one-dimensional quantity such as a duration or temperature. Here, ''continuous'' means that pairs of values can have arbitrarily small differences. Every real ...
(as a metric space
In mathematics, a metric space is a Set (mathematics), set together with a notion of ''distance'' between its Element (mathematics), elements, usually called point (geometry), points. The distance is measured by a function (mathematics), functi ...
with the least-upper-bound property
In mathematics, the least-upper-bound property (sometimes called completeness, supremum property or l.u.b. property) is a fundamental property of the real numbers. More generally, a partially ordered set has the least-upper-bound property if ever ...
). In this treatment, calculus is a collection of techniques for manipulating certain limits. Infinitesimals get replaced by sequences of smaller and smaller numbers, and the infinitely small behavior of a function is found by taking the limiting behavior for these sequences. Limits were thought to provide a more rigorous foundation for calculus, and for this reason, they became the standard approach during the 20th century. However, the infinitesimal concept was revived in the 20th century with the introduction of non-standard analysis
The history of calculus is fraught with philosophical debates about the meaning and logical validity of fluxions or infinitesimal numbers. The standard way to resolve these debates is to define the operations of calculus using (ε, δ)-definitio ...
and smooth infinitesimal analysis, which provided solid foundations for the manipulation of infinitesimals.
Differential calculus
Differential calculus is the study of the definition, properties, and applications of the derivative
In mathematics, the derivative is a fundamental tool that quantifies the sensitivity to change of a function's output with respect to its input. The derivative of a function of a single variable at a chosen input value, when it exists, is t ...
of a function. The process of finding the derivative is called ''differentiation''. Given a function and a point in the domain, the derivative at that point is a way of encoding the small-scale behavior of the function near that point. By finding the derivative of a function at every point in its domain, it is possible to produce a new function, called the ''derivative function'' or just the ''derivative'' of the original function. In formal terms, the derivative is a linear operator
In mathematics, and more specifically in linear algebra, a linear map (also called a linear mapping, linear transformation, vector space homomorphism, or in some contexts linear function) is a mapping V \to W between two vector spaces that pr ...
which takes a function as its input and produces a second function as its output. This is more abstract than many of the processes studied in elementary algebra, where functions usually input a number and output another number. For example, if the doubling function is given the input three, then it outputs six, and if the squaring function is given the input three, then it outputs nine. The derivative, however, can take the squaring function as an input. This means that the derivative takes all the information of the squaring function—such as that two is sent to four, three is sent to nine, four is sent to sixteen, and so on—and uses this information to produce another function. The function produced by differentiating the squaring function turns out to be the doubling function.
In more explicit terms the "doubling function" may be denoted by and the "squaring function" by . The "derivative" now takes the function , defined by the expression "", as an input, that is all the information—such as that two is sent to four, three is sent to nine, four is sent to sixteen, and so on—and uses this information to output another function, the function , as will turn out.
In Lagrange's notation, the symbol for a derivative is an apostrophe
The apostrophe (, ) is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritical mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet and some other alphabets. In English, the apostrophe is used for two basic purposes:
* The marking of the omission of one o ...
-like mark called a prime
A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...
. Thus, the derivative of a function called is denoted by , pronounced "f prime" or "f dash". For instance, if is the squaring function, then is its derivative (the doubling function from above).
If the input of the function represents time, then the derivative represents change concerning time. For example, if is a function that takes time as input and gives the position of a ball at that time as output, then the derivative of is how the position is changing in time, that is, it is the velocity
Velocity is a measurement of speed in a certain direction of motion. It is a fundamental concept in kinematics, the branch of classical mechanics that describes the motion of physical objects. Velocity is a vector (geometry), vector Physical q ...
of the ball.
If a function is linear
In mathematics, the term ''linear'' is used in two distinct senses for two different properties:
* linearity of a '' function'' (or '' mapping'');
* linearity of a '' polynomial''.
An example of a linear function is the function defined by f(x) ...
(that is if the Graph of a function, graph of the function is a straight line), then the function can be written as , where is the independent variable, is the dependent variable, is the ''y''-intercept, and:
:
This gives an exact value for the slope of a straight line. If the graph of the function is not a straight line, however, then the change in divided by the change in varies. Derivatives give an exact meaning to the notion of change in output concerning change in input. To be concrete, let be a function, and fix a point in the domain of . is a point on the graph of the function. If is a number close to zero, then is a number close to . Therefore, is close to . The slope between these two points is
:
This expression is called a ''difference quotient''. A line through two points on a curve is called a ''secant line'', so is the slope of the secant line between and . The second line is only an approximation to the behavior of the function at the point because it does not account for what happens between and . It is not possible to discover the behavior at by setting to zero because this would require dividing by zero, which is undefined. The derivative is defined by taking the limit as tends to zero, meaning that it considers the behavior of for all small values of and extracts a consistent value for the case when equals zero:
:
Geometrically, the derivative is the slope of the tangent line to the graph of at . The tangent line is a limit of secant lines just as the derivative is a limit of difference quotients. For this reason, the derivative is sometimes called the slope of the function .
Here is a particular example, the derivative of the squaring function at the input 3. Let be the squaring function.
:
The slope of the tangent line to the squaring function at the point (3, 9) is 6, that is to say, it is going up six times as fast as it is going to the right. The limit process just described can be performed for any point in the domain of the squaring function. This defines the ''derivative function'' of the squaring function or just the ''derivative'' of the squaring function for short. A computation similar to the one above shows that the derivative of the squaring function is the doubling function.
Leibniz notation
A common notation, introduced by Leibniz, for the derivative in the example above is
:
In an approach based on limits, the symbol is to be interpreted not as the quotient of two numbers but as a shorthand for the limit computed above. Leibniz, however, did intend it to represent the quotient of two infinitesimally small numbers, being the infinitesimally small change in caused by an infinitesimally small change applied to . We can also think of as a differentiation operator, which takes a function as an input and gives another function, the derivative, as the output. For example:
:
In this usage, the in the denominator is read as "with respect to ". Another example of correct notation could be:
:
Even when calculus is developed using limits rather than infinitesimals, it is common to manipulate symbols like and as if they were real numbers; although it is possible to avoid such manipulations, they are sometimes notationally convenient in expressing operations such as the total derivative.
Integral calculus
''Integral calculus'' is the study of the definitions, properties, and applications of two related concepts, the ''indefinite integral'' and the ''definite integral''. The process of finding the value of an integral is called ''integration''. The indefinite integral, also known as the ''antiderivative'', is the inverse operation to the derivative. is an indefinite integral of when is a derivative of . (This use of lower- and upper-case letters for a function and its indefinite integral is common in calculus.) The definite integral inputs a function and outputs a number, which gives the algebraic sum of areas between the graph of the input and the x-axis. The technical definition of the definite integral involves the limit of a sum of areas of rectangles, called a Riemann sum.
A motivating example is the distance traveled in a given time. If the speed is constant, only multiplication is needed:
:
But if the speed changes, a more powerful method of finding the distance is necessary. One such method is to approximate the distance traveled by breaking up the time into many short intervals of time, then multiplying the time elapsed in each interval by one of the speeds in that interval, and then taking the sum (a Riemann sum) of the approximate distance traveled in each interval. The basic idea is that if only a short time elapses, then the speed will stay more or less the same. However, a Riemann sum only gives an approximation of the distance traveled. We must take the limit of all such Riemann sums to find the exact distance traveled.
When velocity is constant, the total distance traveled over the given time interval can be computed by multiplying velocity and time. For example, traveling a steady 50 mph for 3 hours results in a total distance of 150 miles. Plotting the velocity as a function of time yields a rectangle with a height equal to the velocity and a width equal to the time elapsed. Therefore, the product of velocity and time also calculates the rectangular area under the (constant) velocity curve. This connection between the area under a curve and the distance traveled can be extended to ''any'' irregularly shaped region exhibiting a fluctuating velocity over a given period. If represents speed as it varies over time, the distance traveled between the times represented by and is the area of the region between and the -axis, between and .
To approximate that area, an intuitive method would be to divide up the distance between and into several equal segments, the length of each segment represented by the symbol . For each small segment, we can choose one value of the function . Call that value . Then the area of the rectangle with base and height gives the distance (time multiplied by speed ) traveled in that segment. Associated with each segment is the average value of the function above it, . The sum of all such rectangles gives an approximation of the area between the axis and the curve, which is an approximation of the total distance traveled. A smaller value for will give more rectangles and in most cases a better approximation, but for an exact answer, we need to take a limit as approaches zero.
The symbol of integration is , an long s, elongated ''S'' chosen to suggest summation. The definite integral is written as:
:
and is read "the integral from ''a'' to ''b'' of ''f''-of-''x'' with respect to ''x''." The Leibniz notation is intended to suggest dividing the area under the curve into an infinite number of rectangles so that their width becomes the infinitesimally small .
The indefinite integral, or antiderivative, is written:
:
Functions differing by only a constant have the same derivative, and it can be shown that the antiderivative of a given function is a family of functions differing only by a constant. Since the derivative of the function , where is any constant, is , the antiderivative of the latter is given by:
:
The unspecified constant present in the indefinite integral or antiderivative is known as the constant of integration.
Fundamental theorem
The fundamental theorem of calculus
The fundamental theorem of calculus is a theorem that links the concept of derivative, differentiating a function (mathematics), function (calculating its slopes, or rate of change at every point on its domain) with the concept of integral, inte ...
states that differentiation and integration are inverse operations. More precisely, it relates the values of antiderivatives to definite integrals. Because it is usually easier to compute an antiderivative than to apply the definition of a definite integral, the fundamental theorem of calculus provides a practical way of computing definite integrals. It can also be interpreted as a precise statement of the fact that differentiation is the inverse of integration.
The fundamental theorem of calculus states: If a function is continuous
Continuity or continuous may refer to:
Mathematics
* Continuity (mathematics), the opposing concept to discreteness; common examples include
** Continuous probability distribution or random variable in probability and statistics
** Continuous ...
on the interval and if is a function whose derivative is on the interval , then
:
Furthermore, for every in the interval ,
:
This realization, made by both Isaac Newton, Newton and Gottfried Leibniz, Leibniz, was key to the proliferation of analytic results after their work became known. (The extent to which Newton and Leibniz were influenced by immediate predecessors, and particularly what Leibniz may have learned from the work of Isaac Barrow
Isaac Barrow (October 1630 – 4 May 1677) was an English Christian theologian and mathematician who is generally given credit for his early role in the development of infinitesimal calculus; in particular, for proof of the fundamental theorem ...
, is difficult to determine because of the priority dispute between them.) The fundamental theorem provides an algebraic method of computing many definite integrals—without performing limit processes—by finding formulae for antiderivatives. It is also a prototype solution of a differential equation. Differential equations relate an unknown function to its derivatives and are ubiquitous in the sciences.
Applications
Calculus is used in every branch of the physical sciences, actuarial science, computer science, statistics, engineering
Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...
, economics, business, medicine, demography, and in other fields wherever a problem can be mathematical model, mathematically modeled and an optimization (mathematics), optimal solution is desired. It allows one to go from (non-constant) rates of change to the total change or vice versa, and many times in studying a problem we know one and are trying to find the other. Calculus can be used in conjunction with other mathematical disciplines. For example, it can be used with linear algebra to find the "best fit" linear approximation for a set of points in a domain. Or, it can be used in probability theory to determine the expectation value of a continuous random variable given a probability density function. In analytic geometry, the study of graphs of functions, calculus is used to find high points and low points (maxima and minima), slope, Concave function, concavity and inflection points. Calculus is also used to find approximate solutions to equations; in practice, it is the standard way to solve differential equations and do root finding in most applications. Examples are methods such as Newton's method, fixed point iteration, and linear approximation. For instance, spacecraft use a variation of the Euler method to approximate curved courses within zero-gravity environments.
Physics makes particular use of calculus; all concepts in classical mechanics and electromagnetism are related through calculus. The mass of an object of known density, the moment of inertia of objects, and the potential energy, potential energies due to gravitational and electromagnetic forces can all be found by the use of calculus. An example of the use of calculus in mechanics is Newton's laws of motion, Newton's second law of motion, which states that the derivative of an object's momentum concerning time equals the net force upon it. Alternatively, Newton's second law can be expressed by saying that the net force equals the object's mass times its acceleration
In mechanics, acceleration is the Rate (mathematics), rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time. Acceleration is one of several components of kinematics, the study of motion. Accelerations are Euclidean vector, vector ...
, which is the time derivative of velocity and thus the second time derivative of spatial position. Starting from knowing how an object is accelerating, we use calculus to derive its path.
Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism and Albert Einstein, Einstein's theory of general relativity are also expressed in the language of differential calculus. Chemistry also uses calculus in determining reaction rates and in studying radioactive decay. In biology, population dynamics starts with reproduction and death rates to model population changes.
Green's theorem, which gives the relationship between a line integral around a simple closed curve C and a double integral over the plane region D bounded by C, is applied in an instrument known as a planimeter, which is used to calculate the area of a flat surface on a drawing. For example, it can be used to calculate the amount of area taken up by an irregularly shaped flower bed or swimming pool when designing the layout of a piece of property.
In the realm of medicine, calculus can be used to find the optimal branching angle of a blood vessel to maximize flow. Calculus can be applied to understand how quickly a drug is eliminated from a body or how quickly a cancerous tumor grows.
In economics, calculus allows for the determination of maximal profit by providing a way to easily calculate both marginal cost and marginal revenue.
See also
* Glossary of calculus
* List of calculus topics
* List of derivatives and integrals in alternative calculi
* List of differentiation identities
* List of publications in mathematics#Calculus, Publications in calculus
* Table of integrals
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
* Uses synthetic differential geometry and nilpotent infinitesimals.
*
*
*
*
*
* Keisler, H.J. (2000). ''Elementary Calculus: An Approach Using Infinitesimals''. Retrieved 29 August 2010 fro
http://www.math.wisc.edu/~keisler/calc.html
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
*
*
Calculus Made Easy (1914) by Silvanus P. Thompson
Full text in PDF
*
Calculus.org: The Calculus page
at University of California, Davis – contains resources and links to other sites
* [http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9217/calculus.htm The Role of Calculus in College Mathematics] from ERICDigests.org
OpenCourseWare Calculus
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Infinitesimal Calculus
nbsp;– an article on its historical development, in ''Encyclopedia of Mathematics'', ed. Michiel Hazewinkel.
*
Calculus training materials at imomath.com
*
The Excursion of Calculus
1772
{{Authority control
Calculus,