One of the books I’ve read this year was ‘Great Feuds in Mathematics’ (see: https://www.amazon.com/Great-Feuds-Mathematics-Liveliest-Disputes/dp/1681620103) and one of the top ten ‘feuds’ was between Newton (of ‘apple’ fame) and Leibniz over who invented calculus.
I’ve just been watching a YouTube video showing the original letters involved in the dispute from around 1670 – some 550 years ago. It seems no matter where you document something, there’s a high probability of it turning up at an inconvenient moment….. The answer to the dispute, Newton was first, but the notation developed by Leibniz is the one students of calculus still use: https://youtu.be/LN–erHStqA
Pat Weaver
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