The Calculus Wars, by Jason Socrates BardiGrade: B
I'm going to start reviewing books I read here. In fact, I've already started! I finished The Calculus Wars last night. There was one phrase brought to mind by the book: I was told there would be no math. Despite being a book about Calculus, there really is no math. That's great for some, but a bit disappointing for me. Bardi tells us that Leibniz has superior notation to Newton, but I'd like to know why it's superior.
When first picking up the book, I was a bit wary about reading a 250 page story of a argument between Newton and Leibniz about who made calculus first. How can you write that much about one argument? You can't. And Bardi doesn't really try. Instead, the book is a history of both men, particularly Leibniz, being the less well known of the two. He covers their education, their independent invention of calculus, and their other accomplishments, as well as their debate over calculus. So it's a history book. It was very interesting learn more about Leibniz, who was considered one of the great minds of his time, but is rarely mentioned today.
In case you're just wanting to know who invented calculus: Newton did it first, Leibniz did it independently, but second. During most of their lives, Leibniz got the credit and fame. But by the end, Newton took the honor and glory, and Leibniz was forgotten. So Newton is remembered as the great creator of Calculus, even though we use Leibniz's name for it ("Calculus" as opposed to Newton's "Fluxions") and Leibniz's notation. (Which as I understand it refers, at least in part, to our use of dy/dx as opposed to x-dot.)
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