Re:‘Infinitesimal,’ a Look at a 16th-Century Math Battle
by ciot1CDM on Monday January 18, 2016 @10:45PM
(#10928748)
If you're interested in a modern rigorous treatment of the classical infinitesimal, check out "smooth infinitesimal analysis" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smooth_infinitesimal_analysis)
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Re:‘Infinitesimal,’ a Look at a 16th-Century Math Battle
by igravious on Tuesday January 19, 2016 @08:40AM
(#10930616)
Should have checked sooner for replies to my post, sorry!
I actually posted the above review/link in the hope that somebody would mention nilpotent infinitesimals and smooth infinitesimal analysis.
Interesting, in my opinion, is that homotopy type theory (HoTT)[0] has taken Conway's surreal numbers[1] approach. Given that I think HoTT is the correct _foundational_ tack and at the same time I also think that smooth infinitesimal analysis is the correct _calculus_ tack I'd very much like to see the two methods combined.
[0] http://homotopytypetheory.org/book/ Part II Mathematics, 11 Real numbers, 11.6 The surreal numbers