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
You would be happy to know that at the time of Newton they didn’t describe achievements like this as inventions but discoveries. And others even still refer to them as “contributions” rather than attributing everything to one guy, after all a lot of mathematicians worked to build calculus.
Newton was working on a theory of “fluxions.” In order to describe this he had to invent an entirely new mathematical notation and their mathematical associations (called derivatives).
We say Newton invented it because, he was the first one to do it. Leibniz (who is often given co-credit for discovering it independently)beat Newton to publishing. Newton wrote on it 50 years prior but didn’t publish.
Often times in history many people invent things first around the same time (like first flight, the lightbulb etc) but typically when they have made the thing all others derive from or a final version.
In the case of Newton…. the derivatives we use today are the same Newton described when he was 23 years old.
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