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calculus
The branch of mathematics that deals with (1) the rate of change of quantities (which can be interpreted as the slopes of curves), known as differential calculus, and (2) the length, area, and volume of objects, known as integral calculus. Calculus was one of the most important developments in mathematics and also in physics, much of which involves studying how quickly one quantity changes with respect to another. It is no coincidence that one of the founders of calculus was the brilliant English physicist Isaac Newton; another was Gottfried Leibniz. William Fogg Osgood (1864-1943) said: "The calculus is the greatest aid we have to the application of physical truth in the broadest sense of the word." Although students nowadays learn the differential calculus first, the integral calculus has older roots.
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