Differential Equations: A Historical Refresher

Abstract

This paper presents a brief account of the important milestones in the historical development of the theory of differential equations. The paper begins with a discussion on the date of birth of differential equations and then touches upon Newton's approach to differential equations. Then the development of the various methods for solving the first order differential equations and the second order linear differential equations are discussed. The paper concludes with a brief mention of the series solutions of differential equations and the qualitative study of differential equations.