Michel Rolle, who had been elected in 1685 to join the Académie Royale des Sciences, is an early critic of calculus, arguing that it is inaccurate and based upon unsound reasoning.

The French mathematician is best known for developing Rolle's theorem in 1691, which essentially states that a smooth function, which attains equal values at two points, must have a stationary point somewhere between them. (A version of the theorem was first stated by the Indian astronomer Bhaskara in the twelfth century.)

Rolle also invents the notation to denote the nth root of x, which is to remain the standardized form.