I can’t seem to wrap my head around the fact that math is invented? Maybe he came up with the symbols of integration and derivation, but these are phenomena, no? We’re just representing it in a “language” that makes sense. I’ve also heard people say that we may need “new math” to discover/explain new phenomena. What does that mean?
Edit: Thank you for all the responses. Making so much more sense now!
In: Mathematics
Newton built the framework for understanding the “Fundamental Theorem of Calculus”.
We had these two seemingly unrelated concepts.
* The slope of a line on a function, at a point. It was called “the derivative” of a function, and we knew about it, and studied it before Newton.
* The area underneath the curve of a function. It was called “the integral”, and we knew how to approximate it, and calculate it for special examples.
Newton proved that the two are inseparably linked. No one had any idea that they were. This was a novel discovery.
That most people are under the following false impression. “That the derivative and the integral were discovered by Newton, and he designed them, such that they are the same thing, but opposites.”
When in reality, “The derivative and the integral, were two completely separate mathematical objects. Newtown was the first person to figure out, and prove, that they are opposites of each other. We had no reason to believe, before Newton, that those two objects would be so incredibly similar.”
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