According to Wikipedia:
“R is a programming language and free software environment for statistical computing and graphics supported by the R Foundation for Statistical Computing.The R language is widely used among statisticians and data miners for developing statistical software and data analysis. It was originally founded by to Australian Professors who wanted a more efficient way to use programing language to analyze data”
My understanding of R is that R can be used to build mathematical models in various fields and it is a fast prototyping language with object oriented programming capability.