ABSTRACT
The singular concept which characterizes calculus and simultaneously sets it apart from arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry is the notion of a limit. The idea of a limit originated with the ancient Greek philosophers and mathematicians. However, they failed to fully develop and exploit this concept. It was not until the latter half of the seventeenth century, when the English mathematician Isaac Newton (1642-1727) and the German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) independently and almost simultaneously invented differential and integral calculus, that the concept of a limit was revived and developed more fully.
