# Did Newton know the chain rule?

I heard someone say recently that Newton didn't know the chain rule. Is that true?

I know Newton didn't share our current conception of functions, the real line, limits, etc., so if he did use something like the chain-rule it wouldn't have been in its modern form. So what's the most chain-rule-like idea he did use (if he used anything close), and what did it look like in his notation?

• See here. Mar 12 at 21:08
• Does this answer your question? When/How were the product and chain rules first proved? Mar 13 at 13:17
• I did read that question & answer before asking mine — it helps but seems incomplete, and I'm a bit confused by it. (It says that Leibniz only used the chain rule "implicitly", but like the commenter, I was under the impression that he explicitly used $\frac{\mathrm{d}y}{\mathrm{d}x} = \frac{\mathrm{d}y}{\mathrm{d}u}\frac{\mathrm{d}u}{\mathrm{d}x}$?) My question is — did Newton ever use the chain rule implicitly? (Or anything chain-rule-like that wasn't the "modern version"?) That link doesn't say. Mar 13 at 15:16