The math itself can be rather abstract, but its effects and applications changed the world. His calculating, analytical mind was likely a trait passed down from his father (who, upon Gottfried’s birth, made a notation in the family journal of the birth time to the quarter hour). Unrestricted access to his father’s voluminous library certainly helped too, and before his 21st birthday young Gottfried obtained both a bachelor’s and master’s degree. He would have begun studying for a doctorate had the admission committee not considered him too young. Undaunted, Leibniz left to further his studies abroad.

On this day, November 11, in 1675 Leibniz created the fundamentals of the new field infinitesimal calculus, that comprises both integral and differential calculus. Leibniz used integral calculus for the first time to find the area under the graph of a function y = ƒ(x).

Leibniz’s invention of calculus came out around the same time as Newton published his works on calculus, and the two men had interacted before. A long dispute raged over whether Leibniz came up with his method independently or plagiarized Newton. The general (though certainly accepted by all) consensus is Newton came up with math first, and mentioned to Leibniz its general outlines, which got Leibniz to make his own.