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

That’s the same with most inventions though, the properties already existed.

An Internal Combustion Engine was always possible, oil and iron have been readily available. Yet someone needed to refine the materials, design the parts and put them together to make the engine. The “ingredients” were always there, the invention is putting them all together.

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