Abstract
A calculus is a pebble, or small stone.* Playing with pebbles, or “calculating”, is a primitive form of arithmetic. The calculus, or calculus, refers to some mathematics that was developed principally in the seventeenth century.
Physicians still use the word calculus in this sense, to describe an unwelcome presence in the kidney or bladder. The success of a textbook on calculus is measured by the degree to which its contents are not described by the physician’s usage of the word.
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© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Priestley, W.M. (1998). Tokens from the Gods. In: Calculus: A Liberal Art. Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-1658-2_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-1658-2_1
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-7233-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-1658-2
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