How fast is he going right now? And so this is what differentialĬalculus is all about. Speed was for the last second, or his average speed

How fast is he going right now? Not just what his average Is the instantaneous rate of change of something? And in the case of Usain Bolt, And you might have not made theĪssociation with these three gentleman. The fastest human alive, and he's probably the fastest Usain Bolt, Jamaican sprinter, whose continuing to do some Most of their major work in the late 1600s. Maybe not as famous, but maybe should be,įamous German philosopher and mathematician, and he wasĪ contemporary of Isaac Newton. Here’s a great video series for the history of mathematics, from Pythagoras to calculus and beyond: Since there are a lot of curves in position-speed-acceleration calculations, calculus proves an extremely valuable tool with which to analyze and predict behavior but it wasn't really the precipitating factor in its creation, for one main reason that there really wasn't the ability to precisely measure time on small scales.Īlthough this book is specifically centered about the evolution of 'e', the author does a great job of tying the discovery of logarithm properties to modern calculus methods by building up the history of calculus from its earliest ancient dabbling to its explosion in the 17th and 18th centuries. Calculus for the most part was rooted in the ancient obsession with trying to square the circle (reduce the area of a circle to a simple x*y formula) as well as computing areas and tangents to other curves.

Khan academy differential calculus