Newton invented calculus, but Leibniz was working in the same field. For that matter, most of the pieces of calculus were already in place. First derivative test? Fermat. Fundamental Theorem of Calculus? Barrow. Integration as summing infinitely many infinitely thin slices? Cavalieri and Kepler. What Newton and Leibniz did was to establish a unified framework for this hodgepodge - and I think there are three or four other people who could have done that, even if those two hadn't. It would have come, maybe a little later, but soon enough.
Sometimes there is a One. I suspect that usually means the work goes nowhere afterwards. (Archimedes' work is simply astonishing, but there was no-one else around even close to his caliber, and the potential of his work went unfulfilled.)
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baggyeyes
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-07 08:38 pm (UTC)For that matter, most of the pieces of calculus were already in place. First derivative test? Fermat. Fundamental Theorem of Calculus? Barrow. Integration as summing infinitely many infinitely thin slices? Cavalieri and Kepler. What Newton and Leibniz did was to establish a unified framework for this hodgepodge - and I think there are three or four other people who could have done that, even if those two hadn't. It would have come, maybe a little later, but soon enough.
Sometimes there is a One. I suspect that usually means the work goes nowhere afterwards. (Archimedes' work is simply astonishing, but there was no-one else around even close to his caliber, and the potential of his work went unfulfilled.)