The Calculus Wars: Newton, Leibniz, and the Greatest Mathematical Clash of All Time - Softcover

Bardi, Jason Socrates

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1560259922 ISBN 13: 9781560259923

Publisher: Basic Books, 2007

Synopsis

This vibrant and gripping history ultimately exposes how these twin mathematical giants (Newton, Leibniz) were proud, brilliant, at times mad, and in the end completely human.

About this title

About the Author:

Jason Socrates Bardi is a writer and editor specializing in the sciences. He has written for a number of different companies, government agencies, adn private institutions, including NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and the Scripps Research Institute.

From Publishers Weekly:

Those interested in a lucid, nontechnical account of the battle between Isaac Newton (1642–1727) and German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) over who invented calculus will welcome science writer and debut author Bardi's cautionary tale. As early as 1665, Newton composed a manuscript detailing his method of calculus with examples, but after his unpleasant experience with a 1672 paper on optics that aroused the ire of Robert Hooke, an eminent member of the Royal Society who accused the younger man of plagiarism, Newton became shy of publishing. Between 1672 and 1676, Leibniz independently discovered calculus, using notation that has since become standard. When Leibniz published his results, Newton's allies rushed to discredit Leibniz in what developed, in Bardi's words, into "the greatest intellectual property debate of all time." While a few personal asides might better have been put in the preface, Bardi provides a timeless lesson about human pride as he describes the series of misunderstandings and miscommunications that led to the clash between these two great minds, "perhaps the greatest of their day." Illus. not seen by PW. (May 10)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1560259922
• ISBN 13: 9781560259923
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304