Who started this controversy?

Question

In Leibniz' and Newton's time, there was a controversy over who invented calcules first, Leibniz or Sir Isaac Newton?

Answer 1

Yes indeed,there was a controversy lasting for several years. It was however resolved when notes of both these mathematicians were examined.It was concluded that each arrived at the conclusions independent of each other. Therefore both are credited as inventors of calculus. Leibniz started first on integration while Newton worked on differentiation. Calculus as we know it today notationally was developed by Leibniz.

Answer 2

Nobody started the controversy - there actually wasn't any real issue. We know that Leibniz published his advanced calculus (bear in mind that some forms of calculus have been about since the Greeks) before Newton did, but they appear to have each developed their systems independently.

The only real controversy is that some claim that Leibniz had plagiarised Newton's earlier (and largely unpublished) workings - but this theory is largely discredited, and it seems certainly that they were working independently.

It is also worth bearing in mind that the argument arises in part due to a misstatement of the questions - since calculus wasn't really 'invented' by either man. Calculus is a set of mathematic theorems, axioms, and processes which were more discovered than invented. In a sense there was invention in formulating the 'tricks' involved in calculus (such as looking at infinitely small differences in values), but these were shortcuts for doing processes that derive natural from other branches of mathematics.

Answer 3

Leibniz and his followers

Answer 4

It was Newton's delay of publishing his findings that started the controversy.
http://www.angelfire.com/md/byme/mathsample.html

added detail:
I was watching Newton's Dark Secrets a couple of months ago on PBS that got me interested in this.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/newton/