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Although it may seem like something that emerged alongside ancient Euclidean geometry or Babylonian astronomy, calculus is a surprisingly recent invention — even newer, in fact, than some of the historical institutions that teach it, including Harvard University.
Harvard was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1636, making it the oldest operating university in the U.S. Back then, it was set up to train Puritan clergy in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and its early curriculum focused on classical languages, theology, and logic.
Later on in the 1600s, across the Atlantic, mathematical heavyweights Isaac Newton in England and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in Germany began working on a new kind of mathematics called calculus, a system that could precisely explain motion and change. The two scholars independently developed their respective systems around the same time in the 1660s, and each published early calculus works in the 1680s. By that time, Harvard had already been educating students for more than 40 years.
The university gradually secularized throughout the 18th century, and its religious instruction began to take a back seat to pave the way for more diverse course offerings. Still, it wasn't until the 1720s — nearly a century after Harvard’s founding — that calculus was first introduced into the curriculum.
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The word “calculus” comes from the Latin word for “______.”
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The word “calculus” comes from the Latin word for “small pebble.”
Harvard has a series of storied underground tunnels.
Beneath Harvard’s stately grounds lies a network of tunnels that have inspired decades of campus intrigue. Originally built to conduct heat and transport services between buildings, they’ve also long been rumored as escape routes and hiding places.
In 1968, Alabama Governor George Wallace reportedly fled from an angry crowd through the tunnels after delivering a speech, and in 1939, a suspected German spy supposedly eluded then-FBI agent Robert Tonis by vanishing into the subterranean lair. Author Jane Langton even set her 1978 murder mystery The Memorial Hall Murder in those mysterious underground tunnels. While the steam tunnels aren’t accessible to the public, a few dormitory tunnels connecting student housing are indeed open and regularly used.
Nicole is a writer, thrift store lover, and group-chat meme spammer based in Ontario, Canada.
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