this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2025
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Science Memes

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Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

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submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[โ€“] [email protected] 16 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Can someone ELI5 why pre-Newton mathematics wasn't up to the task?

[โ€“] [email protected] 40 points 3 days ago

Newton's laws, including gravity and motion, can be expressed in terms of differential equations.

Differential equations pretty much requires calculus, which just hadn't been formalized yet.

Newton's laws also provide convincing reasons for the necessity and legitimacy of calculus, by being able to derive orbits from his simple laws.