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Isaac Newton and Leibnitz

Since Isaac Newton ’s math results were published so late, a bitter controversy arose between the supporters of Isaac Newton and the German mathematician and philosopher, Gottfried Leibnitz.

Mini Leibnitz biography

Gottfried Leibnitz was born in 1646 and died in 1716. Gottfried Leibnitz had not yet started his study of mathematics in 1671 and it was not until October 29, 1675 that the first mention of the calculus notation in used today appeared in his notes.

What did Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz discover?

Gottfried Leibnitz noticed that differentiation reduced the degree of a polynomial. Gottfried Leibnitz used the notation x/d but soon changed it to dx. In 1676, in correspondence witht he Royal Society , Gottfried Leibnitz learnt that Isaac Newton had produced some important results. Isaac Newton supplied him with a variety math theorems but referred to his method of fluxions by means of two anagrams from which Leibnitz deduced nothing.

In a reply he gave his rules for dy and dx. Isaac Newtonn, in his Principia, mentioned that Leibnitz had discovered independently a method which hardly differed from mine except in words and symbols.

Leibnitz formula and Leibnitz rule

The greatest merit of Gottfried Wilhelm Von Leibnitz’ work was his creation of a mathematical symbolism. Besides Gottfried Leibnitz’ introduction of dx, Gottfried Leibnitz invented the notations dy/dx and d/dx.

dy/dx represents the difference in y- coordinates/ the difference in x- coordinates. Gottfried Leibnitz’ work is foundation to the notations in calculus used today.

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