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And her calculus is a mathematical technique created in the 17th century which made it possible for the first time in history to measure varying rates of change.

This was an astoundingly powerful innovation. to measure varying rates of change.

This was an astoundingly powerful innovation, which didn't just have a profound impact

on mathematics itself, but eventually enable us to do everything from predicting

the pressure building up behind a dam to tracking the

position of a space shuttle. The potential power of calculus was recognised from the start

but the question of who invented it provoked one of the most bitter and lasting feuds in scientific history.

The antagonists were an English natural philosopher, Sir Isaac Newton, and a German philosopher

and political advisor, Godfried Leibniz.

It was a fight set against the backdrop of the Hanoverian succession to the English

throne, the formation of the Royal Society which pitted England against Europe, and geometric

notation against algebra, and the nature of God.

To discuss calculus and the battle between Leibniz and Newton over who conceived it,

I'm joined by Simon Schaffer, professor of the history of science at the University of Cambridge, Patricia Farrah, Senior

Tutor of Claire College, University of Cambridge, and Jack Istadol departmental lecturer in the

History of Mathematics at the University of Oxford. Simon Schaffer, can we start with Godfrey de Leibniz and why was he such an important figure?

Leibniz is a fascinating figure and I imagine less familiar to a British audience than his great antagonist, Isaac Newton.

Both of them have biscuits, named after them, Fig Newton's on the one hand and Leibniz, which is a very fashionable

form of snack in Germany even today.

Leibniz was born in 1646 in Leipzig so he's what four years younger than Newton

...