system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How did Isaac Newton "invent" calculus?

I've never taken any math above algebra 2 or stats in college, so forgive me if this is common knowledge! I've always been confused by the fact that Isaac Newton is credited with having invented calculus. Few questions:

Did he invent or discover calculus? Semantics, I know, but I'm curious to hear what the argument for invention would be.

Do any of his thought processes survive?

Has anyone since invented (or discovered) a type of math? (for that matter, is calculus a type of math or just math or both??)
gpt
In a way, it's both. The concepts that underpin calculus (derivatives, integrals) were already "there" and, in this sense, Issac and Liebniz "discovered them."

But, to discover them, they had to "invent" a new mathematical framework, new symbols and processes, to access this new field.

For example, the instantaneous slope of a curve, f(*x*) = *x*^2, being  equal to 2*x* was always the case. But the processes that can be used to derive 2*x* from *x*^2 were invented.