eli5: What do people mean when they say “Newton invented calculus”?

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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

43 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

It’s probably a bit off semantically. I think you’re getting at the fact that math exists, and it can’t really be created. It’s probably better to say that newton is the one we give credit to for *defining* calculus and laying out the rules and symbols for others to use.

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