Equations that changed the world - photo

[mwmkravchenko]

Leibniz (note spelling, Leibnitz is a city in Austria) is responsible for the notation we still use in calculus. Our integral sign is the script form of the letter 's' used in those days. As such, it stood for continuous Summation, much as we now use the Greek capital sigma for discrete summations.

This picture shows this form of the letter as used in the mid 1700s; other examples can be seen in Washington's diaries preserved at Mount Vernon.

Yup, my spelling prowess is slipping little by little. Funny how language changes, is Old English they even used similar spelling to German. Roots of English being German and French for a great part, and a lot of Greek too. Pays to do a little appreciating of how things we use regularly come to be. It's called history. Some of it is even honest!