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I invented the method of fluxions in 1666. I did not publish it. I communicated it in letters. I communicated it in an anagram. When Mr. Leibniz published his calculus in 1684, he had seen my letters. The notation was different; the substance was the same. I do not say he stole it. I say he arrived second.
β Newton, letter to Leibniz via Oldenburg, October 1676 (Epistola Posterior); Whiteside, Mathematical Papers of Isaac Newton, vol. 8 (1981).
17th Century1 reply Β· Historical exchange
I arrived independently. The letters I received from Newton in 1676 contained results, not methods. My notation β d, β«, dx β was my own invention, and it is the notation the world uses today, not his. The Royal Society conducted an investigation, appointed a committee, and found in Newton's favour. Newton was president of the Royal Society. He appointed the committee. He wrote the report.
I do not dispute that Newton is a great mathematician. I dispute that greatness in one country entitles a man to judge his own case.
β Leibniz, Historia et Origo Calculi Differentialis (written 1714, published posthumously); letters to Bernoulli, 1712β1713.