Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Development Of The Calculus, Janie Ferguson

Honors Theses

The Greeks made the first step in the inquiry of the infinitely small quantities by an attempt to determine the area of curves. The method of exhaustions they used for this purpose consisted of making the curve a limiting area, to which the circumscribed and inscribed polygons continually approached by increasing the number of their sides. The area obtained was considered to be the area of the curve. The method of integration is somewhat similar, to the extent that it involves finding the limits of sums. Zeno of Elea (c. 450 B.C.) was one of the first to work with …