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Single Idea 18083

[filed under theme 6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 5. The Infinite / k. Infinitesimals ]

Full Idea

The method of infinitesimals is that you divide by the time, and then set the time to zero.

Gist of Idea

With infinitesimals, you divide by the time, then set the time to zero

Source

Philip Kitcher (The Nature of Mathematical Knowledge [1984], 10.2)

Book Ref

Kitcher,Philip: 'The Nature of Mathematical Knowledge' [OUP 1984], p.238

The 9 ideas with the same theme [items too small to be measured]:

21382 Things get smaller without end [Anaxagoras]
18081 Nature uses the infinite everywhere [Leibniz]
18080 A tangent is a line connecting two points on a curve that are infinitely close together [Leibniz]
18091 Infinitesimals are ghosts of departed quantities [Berkeley]
18085 Values that approach zero, becoming less than any quantity, are 'infinitesimals' [Cauchy]
18086 Weierstrass eliminated talk of infinitesimals [Weierstrass, by Kitcher]
18110 Infinitesimals are not actually contradictory, because they can be non-standard real numbers [Bostock]
18083 With infinitesimals, you divide by the time, then set the time to zero [Kitcher]
18834 Infinitesimals do not stand in a determinate order relation to zero [Rumfitt]