MARIEL S.

CABUHAT
STEM 11-12
Timeline History of Calculus
c.360 B.C.
Eudoxus of Cnidus provides a ``method of exhaustion'', close to the limiting concept of calculus,
which is used by himself and later Greeks to find areas and volumes of curvilinear figures; it was
based on the lemma that any non-zero quantity can be made as large as one wishes by multiplying it
by a large enough constant. <HM>
1615
Johannes Kepler uses infinitesimals to calculate volumes of revolution in New Measurement of the
Volume of Wine Casks.
1635
Bonaventura Cavalieri calculates volumes using infinitely small sections.
1655
John Wallis studies infinite series in Arithmetic of Infinitesimals
1658
Blaise Pascal, working on the sine function, ``almost'' discovers calculus
1665
Isaac Newton retires to the country to escape the Great Plague in London; there he invents the first
form of calculus.
1668
James Gregory includes a geometrical version of the fundamental theorem of calculus in Geometrical
Exercises and the Universal Part of Geometry.
1669
Newton includes his method for finding areas under curves in his On the Analysis of Equations Unlimited
in the Number of Their Terms, circulated privately.
1670
Isaac Barrow uses methods similar to calculus to draw tangents to curves, find the lengths of curves,
and the areas bounded by curves.
1675

Gottfried Leibniz introduces the modern notation for integration and the notation dx/dyfor
differentiation; he also determines the product rule for differentiation.
1676
Newton writes two letters to Leibniz, hinting at his work with infinite series and fluxions (his form of
calculus); also this year, Leibniz discovers how to differentiate any fractional power of x.
1677
Leibniz finds the quotient rule for differentiation.
1684
Leibniz publishes ``A new method for maxima and minima as well as tangents, which is impeded
neither by fractional nor by irrational quantities, and a remarkable type of calculus for this''; although
only six pages long, few can understand it.
1686
Leibniz publishes his method of integral calculus in an issue of Acta Eruditorum.
1691
Michel Rolle states without proof the theorem named after him.
1693
John Wallis publishes Newton's method of fluxions in volume two of his Mathematical Works.
1694
Jean Bernoulli discovers the method known as l'Hospital's Rule; it is known by that name because
Marquis Antoine de l'Hospital bought it from Bernoulli and introduced it in his influential 1696
textbook Analysis of Infinitesimals.
1715
Brook Taylor introduces his famous series in Methodus Incrementorum Directa et Inversa, in which he
develops the calculus of finite differences.
1797
Joseph-Louis Lagrange introduces the notations f'x and y' for the derivatives of f(x) and y,
respectively .
1800
Louis F. A. Arbogast introduces the symbol D for the operation of differentiation.
1841

Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi adopts the modern notation for partial differentiation; Adrien-Marie
Legendre originally introduced it in 1786, but immediately abandoned it.
1854
Bernhard Riemann defines the integral in a way that does not require continuity.
1872
H. Eduard Heine, a student of Karl Weierstrass, presents the modern ``epsilon-delta'' definition of a
limit in his Elements.
2000 B.C. to 200 B.C.
c.1975 B.C.
Mesopotamian mathematicians discover how to solve quadratic equations.
c.1850 B.C.
Mesopotamian mathematicians discover the so-called Pythagorean theorem approximately 12
centuries before the time of Pythagoras
876 B.C.
The first known use of a symbol for zero appears in India.
c.465 B.C.
The Pythagorean Hippasus of Metapontum discovers the dodecahedron, a regular solid whose 12
faces are regular pentagons. There are only 4 other regular solids: the tetrahedron (4 equilateral
triangles), the cube (6 squares), the octahedron (8 equilateral triangles), and the icosahedron (20
equilateral triangles). <TT/CR/HM>

c.450 B.C.
``Achilles'' paradox of Zeno.
c.350 B.C.
Menaechmus discovers the conic sections: the parabola, ellipse, and hyperbola.
c.300 B.C.
The thirteen books of Euclid's Elements (the most widely read textbook ever written) contains
propositions on plane geometry, the distributive, commutative, and associative laws of arithmetic,
quadratic equations, prime numbers (including the theorem that the set of primes is infinite), perfect
numbers, greatest common divisors, geometric series, irrational numbers, and solid geometry,
including the five regular solids. Unlike the modern treatment of these ideas, the Greeks used an
entirely geometrical approach in mathematics, using line segments to represent all magnitudes
(numbers). Although the Elements compiles already-known Greek mathematics, some of the proofs
are probably Euclid's own. <HM>
See my Euclid paperfor more information.
c.250 B.C.
Archimedes of Syracuse and the quadrature of the parabola.
1500 A.D. to present
1575
The first known proof by mathematical induction is included in Francesco Maurolico's Arithmeticorum
Libri Duo; he proves that the sum of the first n odd integers is n^2.
1635
Rene Descartes discovers that any simple convex polyhedron having V vertices, E edges,
and F faces obeys the rule V - E + F = 2; since his discovery is not published until 1860, the theorem
is named after Leonhard Euler, who rediscovered it in 1752.
1679
Gottfried Leibniz introduces binary arithmetic in a letter written to Joachim Bouvet, showing that any
number may be expressed by 0's and 1's only.
1781
Joseph-Louis Lagrange expresses in a letter to his mentor Jean le Rond d'Alembert his fear that no
further progress can be made in mathematics; despite this dire prophesy, many of his own
contributions are still to come.
1843
While strolling along the Royal Canal, Sir William Rowan Hamilton devises a mathematical system
which is not commutative; he develops his idea into a system of ``quaternions'', similar to that of
three-dimensional vectors. His ideas help to usher in modern abstract algebra.
1844
Hermann Gunther-Grassman publishes The Study of Extensions, which deals with multidimensional
vectors; he almost single-handedly creates modern linear algebra.
1865
August Ferdinand Mobius unveils his single-sided, single-edged figure, the Mobius strip.
1877
Georg Cantor proves that the number of points on a line segment is the same as the number of points
in the interior of a square, publication of the result is delayed for a year because mathematicians
refuse to believe it.
1890
Giuseppe Peano discovers a one-dimensional, continuous curve that passes through all the points in
the interior of a square.
1902
Bertrand Russell discovers his ``great paradox''.
1908
The final edition of Giuseppe Peano's Mathematical Formulas contains about 4,200 theorems.
1976
Haken, Appel, and Koch prove with the use of a computer that only four colors are required to color in
any two-dimensional map in such a way that no two adjacent regions share the same color; this was
conjectured in 1850 by Francis Guthrie.