Questions tagged [leibniz]
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Where can I find the Royal Society report on the controversy over the invention of differential calculus?
Where can I find the report on the Leibniz–Newton calculus controversy mentioned in this article?
In 1712 the Royal Society in England wrote a report purporting to settle the matter — except, the ...
user18960
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Did any mathematicians of the time (the 17th Century) try out an intermediary between Bernoulli's and Nieuwentijdt’s infinitesimals?
In §4 of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on continuity and infinitesimals, the author (John L. Bell) mentions that:
... Johann Bernoulli (1667–1748) [in a] letter of his to Leibniz ...
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Leibniz conjecture that geometry is a form of algebra
Hermann Grassmann (1840s) verified the Leibniz conjecture that geometry 1s a form of algebra, showing that the geometric figures themselves are algebraic entities, because they are subject to definite ...
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When did derivative mean not only "slope of tangent" but also "instantaneous rate of change"?
When did derivative mean not only "slope of tangent" but also "instantaneous rate of change"?
Fermat was interested in minima and maxima, and realized these occur when the tangent ...
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How was the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus discovered?
How was the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus discovered?
The FTC is at once simple enough that Math.SE is full of questions asking "why is it such a big deal" and yet avoided discovery for ...
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What physical problems required the invention of the derivative?
I know that Fermat had a method of adequality in order to solve certain optimization. One such problem was: "Suppose that you have a rectangle of material and need to cut corners into it such ...
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What is the title of the 1676 Memoir in which Leibniz first used the Chain Rule?
On Wikipedia it says:
"The chain rule seems to have first been used by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. He used it to calculate the derivative. He first mentioned it in a 1676 memoir [ Chain Rule ...
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What did physics mean in 17th century?
In a latter to Huygens, Leibniz wrote Nam in applicatione Geometriae ad Physicam saepissime contingit, which is traslated by Blåsjö (p. 67) as For in the application of geometry to physics it happens ...
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Are there any direct comments by Isaac Newton on Leibniz's living force / vis-viva?
The living force or the vis-viva is a quantity usually attributed to Leibniz (although there were a few other people who identified it as a conserved quantity in certain collisions earlier). Many ...
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How to understand Poincaré's interpretation of Newton's anagram "aaaaabbbeeeeii"
In Science and Method, page 37, Poincaré (as translated by Francis Maitland) states,
The story goes that Newton once communicated to Leibnitz an anagram somewhat like the following: aaaaabbbeeeeii, ...
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How did the idea of a formal derivation emerge?
Infinitesimal calculus and the introduction of derivatives is often linked to Newton and Leibniz.
I was wondering, when and why the idea of studying formal derivatives (e.g., of a formal polynomial) ...
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Did Leibniz ever express any opinion about Aristotle, Plato or Archimedes?
Since Leibniz is known to have expressed opinions about Descartes' and Newton's abilities maybe he did the same for the prominent thinkers of antiquity.
Did Leibniz ever express any opinion about ...
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Where did Leibniz explore the product rule of differential calculus?
In what book/letter did Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz explore the product rule as part of differential calculus?
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Why do we use Leibniz's “version” of calculus instead of Newton's?
I understand that they invented calculus independently at roughly the same time, but why do we use Leibniz's terminology/notation rather than Newton's?
For example, why don't we use "fluxion"...
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Source of claim that Leibniz discovered separation of variables for ODEs in 1691?
Claims I'm evaluating
I've read in multiple sources that Leibniz formulated separation of variables for ODEs in 1691. A couple example sources are below.
Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern ...
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What does it mean by "d-ism of Leibniz" and "dotage of Newton" in simple English?
I am reading this article by Donald E. Knuth and get stuck by this sentence:
Our mathematical language continues to improve, just as “the d-ism of
Leibniz overtook the dotage of Newton” in past ...
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Why is differentiation under the integral sign named the Leibniz rule?
The question here asked why differentiation under the integral sign is named "Feynman's trick". That is a comparatively recent name for the method. Aside from the name "differentiation under the ...
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Question about Leibniz's "characteristic numbers" and propositional logic
The Wikipedia article on Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz mentions, in the chapter on symbolic thought, that:
Leibniz saw that the uniqueness of prime factorization suggests a central role for prime numbers ...
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Was English mathematics behind Europe by many years because of Newton's notation?
Below are several quotes suggesting that Newton's notation had the effect of retarding English mathematics by 50 years, 100 years, or even centuries.
Here is my simplistic two-sentence historical ...
user67
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What was the mechanical principle of Leibniz's "integraph"?
For a very long time I've searched in the internet what was the actual integrating device which Leibniz designed in 1693. Yesterday I found the answer - the instrument which Leibniz devised is the ...
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Did Leibniz also design analog computers?
My question is based on the information that appears in several websites, according to which I found three examples of a kind of instrument that was probably an analog computer. The first one ...
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What navigation instrument did Leibniz develop?
My question refers to Gottfried Leibniz's "instrumentum longuitidimum" mentioned in some sites — a device that could record the course of a ship in sea and display its recent position directly on a ...
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How did Leibniz's prototypes of a yaw system and a braking mechanism (for windmills) work?
My question is concerned with two hardly mentioned yet very ingenious inventions of Leibniz. These two inventions represent technological inventiveness and visionary insight (about wind energy ...
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Did Leibniz sketch a design for a machine capable of solving a system of linear equations?
My question is based on the information on pages 108-109 of the book The Tangled Origins of the Leibnizian Calculus. I know that Leibniz
invented the stepped drum and used it to build the stepped ...
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What kind of mathematical education did Leibniz have?
It doesn't seem that he began his life in mathematics. Does anyone know how it came to be ? What did he read ?
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Did Leibniz use infinite numbers?
Arthur's recent article
Arthur, Richard T. W.
Leibniz's actual infinite in relation to his analysis of matter. G. W. Leibniz, interrelations between mathematics and philosophy, 137–156,
Archimedes,...
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Are Leibnizian infinitesimals thought to be logical fictions by Leibniz scholars?
Japanese scholar Hide Ishiguro published a book in 1990 entitled "Leibniz's philosophy of logic and language" (second edition). Of particular interest, as far as the history of mathematics ...
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Leibniz's stand on axioms and definitions
Recently, while discussing, a friend claimed that Leibniz was fond of proceeding axiomatically and from definitions, which I find hard to believe. My conception is that Leibniz was more interested in ...
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Why is Leibniz less well regarded?
A well-known and specific example is that Leibniz is less well regarded than Newton for his calculus, the reason being notation,
Leibniz notation lets you incorrectly work with derivatives as ...
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What is the difference between Calculus of Newton and that of Leibniz?
Are there any differences between the study of Calculus done by Newton as compared to that done by Leibniz? If yes, please mention point by point.
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