Dialogue imagined after reading Queen Elizabeth's suggestion that "rescue helicopters" provide a 'suitably neutral' choice for 'casual conversation'

THANE: How do you do?

QE-II: Very well, thank you. How do you do?

THANE: Very well, thank you. [Pause. Followed by longer pause] Say—I've heard of some nice new rescue helicopters, you know, the kind used to save people's lives in the Andes, or on I-5, or whatever.

QE-II: Fascinating!

W. W. Rouse Ball on Newton's fluxions vs the Leibnitz differential notation

From A Short Account of the History of Mathematics (4th edition, 1908) by W. W. Rouse Ball
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If we must confine ourselves to one system of notation then there can be little doubt that that which was invented by Leibnitz is better fitted for most of the purposed to which the infinitesimal calculus is applied than that of fluxions, and for some (such as the calculus of variations) it is indeed almost essential. It should be remembered, however, that at the beginning of the eighteenth century the methods of the infinitesimal calculus had not been systematized, and either notation was equally good. The development of that calculus was the main work of the mathematicians of the first half of the eighteenth century. The differential form was adopted by continental mathematicians. The application of it by Euler, Lagrange, and Laplace to the principles of mechanics laid down in the Principia was the great achievement of the last half of that century, and finally demonstrated the superiority of the differential to the fluxional calculus. The translation of the Principia into the language of modern analysis, and the filling in of the details of the Newtonian theory by the aid of that analysis, were effected by Laplace.

The controversy with Leibnitz was regarded in England as an attempt by foreigners to defraud Newton of the credit of his invention, and the question was complicated on both sides by national jealousies. It was therefore natural, though it was unfortunate, that in England the geometrical and fluxional methods as used by Newton were alone studied and employed. For more than a century the English school was thus out of touch with continental mathematicians. The consequence was that, in spite of the brilliant band of scholars formed by Newton, the improvements in the methods of analysis gradually effected on the continent were almost unknown in Britain. It was not until 1820 that the value of analytical tools was fully recognized in England, and that Newton's countrymen again took any large share in the development of mathematics.
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