Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716)	Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

Sir Isaac Newton (British) and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (German) are considered the inventors of calculus (known in the past as "the calculus"). Calculus is mostly the study of infinity (large without bound) and the infinitesimal (small without bound). And these two people certainly made great discoveries to advance this field of mathematics. But it must be said that they had many predecessors, like Archimedes and Euclid who dealt with the infinite and infinitesimal in very natural ways. Besides, many of the ideas of these two concepts were being discussed and studied in the years before Newton and Leibniz worked on them. Pierre de Fermat and Isaac Barrow made important discoveries before Newton and Leibniz. Newton began creating calculus around 664-1666, but did not publish. Some people were aware of what he was doing, through letters and apers which Newton showed to people. He did not publish until 1687 and later. Leibniz first studied calculus around 1672-1676, and published in 1684 and 1686. The ideas were similar, but the notation was different. And many of the lesser discoveries were different. Nowadays, our calculus notation is mostly that of Leibniz.

In the late 1690's British scientists began accusing Leibniz of having plagiarized Newton's great discovery. Nowadays, it seems unlikely that Leibniz knew very much about what Newton had discovered; and his discoveries would seem to be mostly original. Of course, neither Newton's nor Leibniz' discoveries were totally original. In 1711, Leibniz appealed to the Royal Society of London, of which he was a member and Newton was President, to clear up these accusations. In public, Newton pretended to have nothing to do with the scandal, remaining silent about it. But, it seems that he secretly was the motivating force behind the accusations. The Royal Society appointed a commission, and essentially found Leibniz guilty of plagiarism.

By taking sides against Leibniz, Newton and his followers refused to use Leibniz' superior notation. Newton founded astrodynamics, based largely on calculus, with which he mostly solved the motions of the planets. After Newton, British mathematics went into a decline, while German mathematics (and the mathematics of other countries) prospered.

Today, Newton and Leibniz are considered the co-inventors of calculus.

The word "calculus" means "pebble or stone" (as it is still used in medicine and dentistry), and apparently means that pebbles (prehistorically and later) were used to "calculate."

To the nonscientific world, Leibniz is best known as a philospher. But his contributions to mathematics have had a much greater impact upon the world (in the physical sciences, where calculus is a major tool) than has his philosophy. When he died, only one person attended his funeral.

Newton (having made many great discoveries in many fields of science) was one of the greatest and most respected scientists in history, equal to Archimedes and Einstein. When he died, Newton was buried in Westminster Abbey.