Editing History of calculus (section)

==Etymology==

In [[mathematics education]], ''calculus'' denotes courses of elementary [[mathematical analysis]], which are mainly devoted to the study of [[Function (mathematics)|functions]] and limits. The word ''calculus'' is [[Latin]] for "small pebble" (the [[diminutive]] of ''[[wikt:calx|calx]],'' meaning "stone"), a meaning which still [[Calculus (medicine)|persists in medicine]]. Because such pebbles were used for counting out distances,<ref>See, for example:
*{{Cite web|title=history - Were metered taxis busy roaming Imperial Rome?|url=https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/8841/were-metered-taxis-busy-roaming-imperial-rome|access-date=2022-02-13|date=2020-06-17|website=Skeptics Stack Exchange}}
*{{Cite book|last=Cousineau|first=Phil|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m8lJVgizhbQC&q=Ancient+Roman+taximeter+calculus&pg=PT80|title=Wordcatcher: An Odyssey into the World of Weird and Wonderful Words|date=2010-03-15|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-1-57344-550-4|oclc=811492876|pages=58|language=en}}</ref> tallying votes, and doing [[abacus]] arithmetic, the word came to mean a method of computation. In this sense, it was used in English at least as early as 1672, several years prior to the publications of Leibniz and Newton.<ref>{{cite OED|calculus}}</ref>

In addition to the differential calculus and integral calculus, the term is also used widely for naming specific methods of calculation. Examples of this include [[propositional calculus]] in logic, the [[calculus of variations]] in mathematics, [[process calculus]] in computing, and the [[felicific calculus]] in philosophy.