Last time, we met Isaac Newton, the solitary genius who unified heaven and earth with his
laws of motion and gravitation. We saw his method of fluxions and learned about his difficult
personality and bitter feuds. Welcome back to Men of Mathematics. Today,
we meet Newton's rival, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, the universal genius whose notation triumphed
even as Newton's reputation crushed him.
Philosopher, mathematician, diplomat, inventor.
Leibniz was the last person who could reasonably claim
to know everything there was to know.