Let author Joseph E. Hofmann take you on a journey through The History of Mathematics to uncover the stories of the great mathematicians and discoveries throughout the centuries. Follow Hofmann s compelling storytelling through the ages, back to the first practitioners all the way to Descartes, the development and calculus, and new discoveries in the beginning of the twentieth century. Joseph E. Hofmann was a German mathematician, historian, and professor who devoted his life to chronicling the history of mathematics. He was considered an expert on the study and history of calculus, on which...

When Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz first arrived in Paris in 1672 he was a well-educated, sophisticated young diplomat who had yet to show any real sign of his latent mathematical abilities. Over his next four crowded, formative years, which Professor Hofmann analyses in detail, he grew to be one of the outstanding mathematicians of the age and to found the modern differential calculus. In Paris, Leibniz rapidly absorbed the advanced exact science of the day. During a short visit to London in 1673 he made a fruitful contact with Henry Oldenburg, the secretary of the Royal Society, who provided...