Advertisement

Advertisement

integral calculus

noun

  1. the branch of mathematics that deals with integrals, especially the methods of ascertaining indefinite integrals and applying them to the solution of differential equations and the determining of areas, volumes, and lengths.


integral calculus

noun

  1. the branch of calculus concerned with the determination of integrals and their application to the solution of differential equations, the determination of areas and volumes, etc Compare differential calculus
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


integral calculus

  1. The study of integration and its uses, such as in calculating areas bounded by curves, volumes bounded by surfaces, and solutions to differential equations.


Discover More

Word History and Origins

Origin of integral calculus1

First recorded in 1720–30
Discover More

Example Sentences

Calculating the area of more complicated subsets of the plane sometimes requires other tools, such as the integral calculus taught in school.

It’s interesting to note that Leibniz was also a mathematician and physicist; he invented differential and integral calculus at about the same time that Isaac Newton did.

“I did high mathematics, differential calculus, integral calculus. All that stuff. All kinds of special statistical processing. And now I’m sitting here and you people are treating me like I’m an idiot.”

He was knocking at the door of the differential and integral calculus, that fundamental tool for understanding the world that was not, so far as we know from written records, in fact discovered until the time of Isaac Newton.

He occupied himself by inventing the differential and integral calculus, making fundamental discoveries on the nature of light and laying the foundation for the theory of universal gravitation.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement