What is Calculus About?

Calculus, invented by Newton and Leibniz in the seventeenth century, has played a decisive role in the development of mathematics and the growth of our present technological society. It is an indispensable tool of both the pure and applied sciences and is one of the cornerstones of modern mathematics. It has provided ways of understanding such phenomena as the velocity of a moving object at any moment, the rate at which moving objects change their speeds and, more generally, the way in which quantities vary as factors affecting them change. In this book, the author tells what calculus is about in simple nontechnical language, understandable to any interested reader.

Calculus, invented by Newton and Leibniz in the seventeenth century, has played a decisive role in the development of mathematics and the growth of our present technological society. It is an indispensable tool of both the pure and applied sciences and is one of the cornerstones of modern mathematics. It has provided ways of understanding such phenomena as the velocity of a moving object at any moment, the rate at which moving objects change their speeds and, more generally, the way in which quantities vary as factors affecting them change. In this book, the author tells what calculus is about in simple nontechnical language, understandable to any interested reader.