| RefNo | MS/81/21 |
| Previous numbers | MS 81.18 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Letter, from [Gottfried Leibniz] to [Henry Oldenburg], dated in London |
| Date | 3 February 1673 |
| Description | Letter in Leibniz' hand written during his stay in London, titled "A letter written by Mr. Leibnizus vindicating a certain algebraic discovery of his from an imputation of having borrowed it from another" in Henry Oldenburg's hand on the first page.
Endorsed 'No. 30: p. 108'
Leibniz visited [Robert] Boyle the day before and met [John] Pell there. Leibniz outlined for them his method using "generative differences" for finding terms of any continuously increasing or decreasing series. Explains his method, where all differences can be multiplied to produce all terms in the seres. Pell suggested that a similar method had been published by [Gabriel Mouton], Canon of Lyon based on Francois Regnauld's work. Leibniz defends the originality of his method, and can produce his working papers to show the context and date of his work. Leibniz's own work goes further than Regnauld and Mouton which is just a shortcut while Leibniz arrived at his method through theoretical analysis. His discovery that the multipliers are binomial coefficients had been hinted at by Pascal's work but had not been fully worked at before.
Includes mathematical formulae throughout to support the demonstration.
Printed in 'Commercium Epistolicum' 1722 edition, page 108, paragraph XXX |
| Language | Latin |
| Extent | 4pp. |
| Format | Manuscript |
| PhysicalDescription | Ink; paper |
| AccessStatus | Open |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA8001 | Oldenburg; Henry (c 1619 - 1677); natural philosopher and scientific correspondent | c 1619 - 1677 |
| NA8450 | Leibniz; Gottfried Wilhelm von (1646 - 1716); mathematician and natural philosopher | 1646 - 1716 |