Jump to content
 







Main menu
   


Navigation  



Main page
Contents
Current events
Random article
About Wikipedia
Contact us
Donate
 




Contribute  



Help
Learn to edit
Community portal
Recent changes
Upload file
 








Search  

































Create account

Log in
 









Create account
 Log in
 




Pages for logged out editors learn more  



Contributions
Talk
 



















Contents

   



(Top)
 


1 Background  





2 Impact  





3 Rivalry with Leibniz  





4 Newton's development of analysis  





5 See also  





6 References and notes  





7 External links  














Method of Fluxions






العربية
Català
Deutsch
Español
Français
Italiano
Polski
Português
Suomi
Svenska
Українська
اردو
Tiếng Vit

 

Edit links
 









Article
Talk
 

















Read
Edit
View history
 








Tools
   


Actions  



Read
Edit
View history
 




General  



What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Cite this page
Get shortened URL
Download QR code
Wikidata item
 




Print/export  



Download as PDF
Printable version
 




In other projects  



Wikimedia Commons
 
















Appearance
   

 






From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 


Method of Fluxions
Cover of book published in 1736
AuthorIsaac Newton
LanguageEnglish
GenreMathematics
PublisherHenry Woodfall

Publication date

1736
Pages339

Method of Fluxions (Latin: De Methodis Serierum et Fluxionum)[1] is a mathematical treatise by Sir Isaac Newton which served as the earliest written formulation of modern calculus. The book was completed in 1671 and posthumously published in 1736.[2]

Background

[edit]

Fluxion is Newton's term for a derivative. He originally developed the method at Woolsthorpe Manor during the closing of Cambridge due to the Great Plague of London from 1665 to 1667. Newton did not choose to make his findings known (similarly, his findings which eventually became the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica were developed at this time and hidden from the world in Newton's notes for many years). Gottfried Leibniz developed his form of calculus independently around 1673, 7 years after Newton had developed the basis for differential calculus, as seen in surviving documents like “the method of fluxions and fluents..." from 1666. Leibniz, however, published his discovery of differential calculus in 1684, nine years before Newton formally published his fluxion notation form of calculus in part during 1693.[3]

Impact

[edit]

The calculus notation in use today is mostly that of Leibniz, although Newton's dot notation for differentiation is frequently used to denote derivatives with respect to time.

Rivalry with Leibniz

[edit]

Newton's Method of Fluxions was formally published posthumously, but following Leibniz's publication of the calculus a bitter rivalry erupted between the two mathematicians over who had developed the calculus first, provoking Newton to reveal his work on fluxions.

Newton's development of analysis

[edit]

For a period of time encompassing Newton's working life, the discipline of analysis was a subject of controversy in the mathematical community. Although analytic techniques provided solutions to long-standing problems, including problems of quadrature and the finding of tangents, the proofs of these solutions were not known to be reducible to the synthetic rules of Euclidean geometry. Instead, analysts were often forced to invoke infinitesimal, or "infinitely small", quantities to justify their algebraic manipulations. Some of Newton's mathematical contemporaries, such as Isaac Barrow, were highly skeptical of such techniques, which had no clear geometric interpretation. Although in his early work Newton also used infinitesimals in his derivations without justifying them, he later developed something akin to the modern definition of limits in order to justify his work.[4]

See also

[edit]
  • Calorimetry
  • George Berkeley
  • Leonhard Euler
  • Non-standard analysis
  • Newton's method
  • Charles Hayes (mathematician)
  • John Landen
  • John Colson
  • Leibniz–Newton calculus controversy
  • Joseph Raphson
  • Time in physics
  • William Lax
  • References and notes

    [edit]
    1. ^ The Method of Fluxions and Infinite Series: With Its Application to the Geometry of Curve-lines. By Sir Isaac Newton, Translated from the Author's Latin Original Not Yet Made Publick. To which is Subjoin'd, a Perpetual Comment Upon the Whole Work, By John Colson, Sir Isaac Newton. Henry Woodfall; and sold by John Nourse, 1736.
  • ^ Sastry, S.Subramanya. "The Newton-Leibniz controversy over the invention of the calculus" (PDF). University of Wisconsin–Madison Computer Sciences User Pages.
  • ^ Sastry, S.Subramanya. "The Newton-Leibniz controversy over the invention of the calculus" (PDF). University of Wisconsin–Madison Computer Sciences User Pages.
  • ^ Kitcher, Philip (Mar 1973). "Fluxions, Limits, and Infinite Littlenesse. A Study of Newton's Presentation of the Calculus". Isis. 64 (1): 33–49. doi:10.1086/351042. JSTOR 229868. S2CID 121774892.
  • [edit]
    Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Method_of_Fluxions&oldid=1232312938"

    Categories: 
    1671 books
    1736 non-fiction books
    1671 in science
    1736 in science
    History of mathematics
    Mathematics books
    Books by Isaac Newton
    Differential calculus
    Mathematics literature
    Books published posthumously
    Treatises
    Hidden categories: 
    Articles with short description
    Short description matches Wikidata
    Articles containing Latin-language text
    Commons category link is on Wikidata
     



    This page was last edited on 3 July 2024, at 02:57 (UTC).

    Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.



    Privacy policy

    About Wikipedia

    Disclaimers

    Contact Wikipedia

    Code of Conduct

    Developers

    Statistics

    Cookie statement

    Mobile view



    Wikimedia Foundation
    Powered by MediaWiki