Topics in the History of Mathematics: The Birth of the Calculus (1986)

The Birth of the Calculus

Two men independently discovered and formulated methods for the Calculus, Newton in England and Leibniz in Paris. In this 25 minute programme, Jeremy Gray visits first Cambridge, to trace Newton's lines of thought through his notebooks, then Hanover, where Leibniz's original notes are stored to trace his very different approach to the same problem. This BBC Open University series profiles the development of mathematical thought from Euclid to the middle of the 19th century. This fourth program examines the discovery of calculus, made independently by both Isaac Newton and Godfrey Wilhelm Leibniz in the 17th century. How, with the discovery of calculus, mathematics received its greatest boost since the time of the ancient Greeks. Narrated by Jeremy Gray.