Make: Volume 82

I

saac Newton developed calculus back in the

mid-1600s as a tool to explain physical

phenomena, in particular the motions of planets.

As it turned out, it was also a way to encode how

things move and change more generally, from

economies to populations of rabbits and foxes.

When Newton did it, his reasoning was mostly

geometrical, not so much based on the large

amounts of algebra and symbols we associate

with calculus today. Those were mostly the

brainchild of his contemporary (and competitor)

Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz.

There is a lot of scary-sounding terminology

that puts people off calculus, like derivatives and

integrals. Too often, ...