Dr. McDowell will explore the reasons for Calculus, the problems that it attempts to solve, and the history of its development. The scientific climate at the time of the development of Calculus will be presented, along with problems which were being tackled at the time. We will see how, given the state of science at the time and the questions begging for answers, the development of Calculus was incredibly natural and could, in hindsight, have been anticipated. Exploration of how the work of Newton and Leibnitz, on two different problems, coming from two different angles, came together to create the body of mathematics we know as Calculus today. Some of the current uses for Calculus will be discussed as well. This talk is intended for a general audience and will assume very little background mathematical knowledge. It is not intended to teach the audience Calculus, but instead to help them to see how it developed and why it is such a beautiful and powerful tool.