Calculus was independently invented in the late 17th century by two mathematicians: Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Newton developed his version of calculus, which he called "the science of fluxions," in the mid-1660s and wrote papers on it as early as 1669, though he did not publish them immediately. Leibniz developed his approach in the mid-1670s and published his work first in 1684, introducing much of the notation still used today. Both made fundamental contributions: Newton focused on change as a variable quantity over time, while Leibniz emphasized differences over infinitely close values. The two independently arrived at the key concepts of differentiation and integration, which are inverse processes
. There was a famous controversy over who invented calculus first, with Newton accusing Leibniz of plagiarism. However, historical evidence shows they developed their ideas independently. Today, both are credited as the founders of calculus, with Newton applying calculus to physics and Leibniz contributing the notation system
. Before Newton and Leibniz, many mathematicians such as Archimedes and others had developed ideas related to calculus, particularly integral calculus, but the formal system of calculus as we know it was established by Newton and Leibniz
