Concept

Infinitesimal

Overview

In mathematics, an infinitesimal number is a non-zero quantity that is closer to 0 than any non-zero real number is. The word infinitesimal comes from a 17th-century Modern Latin coinage infinitesimus, which originally referred to the "infinitieth" item in a sequence.

Infinitesimals do not exist in the standard real number system, but they do exist in other number systems, such as the surreal number system and the hyperreal number system, of which can be thought as the real numbers augmented with both infinitesimal and infinite quantities; the augmentations are the reciprocals of one another.

Infinitesimal numbers were introduced in the development of calculus, in which the derivative was first conceived as a ratio of two infinitesimal quantities. This definition was not rigorously formalized. As calculus developed further, infinitesimals were replaced by limits, which can be calculated using the standard real numbers.

In the 3rd century BC Archimedes used what eventually came to be known as the method of indivisibles in his work The Method of Mechanical Theorems to find areas of regions and volumes of solids. In his formal published treatises, Archimedes solved the same problem using the method of exhaustion.

Infinitesimals regained popularity in the 20th century with Abraham Robinson's development of nonstandard analysis and the hyperreal numbers, which, after centuries of controversy, showed that a formal treatment of infinitesimal calculus was possible. Following this, mathematicians developed surreal numbers, a related formalization of infinite and infinitesimal numbers that include both hyperreal cardinal and ordinal numbers, which is the largest ordered field.

Vladimir Arnold wrote in 1990:

Nowadays, when teaching analysis, it is not very popular to talk about infinitesimal quantities. Consequently, present-day students are not fully in command of this language. Nevertheless, it is still necessary to have command of it.

An insight for making infinitesimals feasible mathematical entities was that they could still retain certain properties such as angle or slope, even if these entities were infinitely small.

Infinitesimals are a basic ingredient in calculus as developed by Leibniz, including the law of continuity and the transcendental law of homogeneity. In common speech, an infinitesimal object is an object that is smaller than any feasible measurement, but not zero in size—or, so small that it cannot be distinguished from zero by any available means. Hence, when used as an adjective in mathematics, infinitesimal means infinitely small, smaller than any standard real number. Infinitesimals are often compared to other infinitesimals of similar size, as in examining the derivative of a function. An infinite number of infinitesimals are summed to calculate an integral.

The modern concept of infinitesimals was introduced around 1670 by either Nicolaus Mercator or Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. The 15th century saw the work of Nicholas of Cusa, further developed in the 17th century by Johannes Kepler, in particular, the calculation of the area of a circle by representing the latter as an infinite-sided polygon. Simon Stevin's work on the decimal representation of all numbers in the 16th century prepared the ground for the real continuum. Bonaventura Cavalieri's method of indivisibles led to an extension of the results of the classical authors. The method of indivisibles related to geometrical figures as being composed of entities of codimension 1. John Wallis's infinitesimals differed from indivisibles in that he would decompose geometrical figures into infinitely thin building blocks of the same dimension as the figure, preparing the ground for general methods of the integral calculus. He exploited an infinitesimal denoted 1/∞ in area calculations.

The use of infinitesimals by Leibniz relied upon heuristic principles, such as the law of continuity: what succeeds for the finite numbers succeeds also for the infinite numbers and vice versa; and the transcendental law of homogeneity that specifies procedures for replacing expressions involving unassignable quantities, by expressions involving only assignable ones. The 18th century saw routine use of infinitesimals by mathematicians such as Leonhard Euler and Joseph-Louis Lagrange. Augustin-Louis Cauchy exploited infinitesimals both in defining continuity in his Cours d'Analyse, and in defining an early form of a Dirac delta function. As Cantor and Dedekind were developing more abstract versions of Stevin's continuum, Paul du Bois-Reymond wrote a series of papers on infinitesimal-enriched continua based on growth rates of functions. Du Bois-Reymond's work inspired both Émile Borel and Thoralf Skolem. Borel explicitly linked du Bois-Reymond's work to Cauchy's work on rates of growth of infinitesimals. Skolem developed the first non-standard models of arithmetic in 1934. A mathematical implementation of both the law of continuity and infinitesimals was achieved by Abraham Robinson in 1961, who developed nonstandard analysis based on earlier work by Edwin Hewitt in 1948 and Jerzy Łoś in 1955. The hyperreals implement an infinitesimal-enriched continuum and the transfer principle implements Leibniz's law of continuity. The standard part function implements Fermat's adequality.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

In the original texts

Passages from public-domain books where Infinitesimal is discussed.

Most of the mathematicians who during the last two generations have treated the differential calculus have been of the opinion that an infinitesimal quantity is an absurdity; although, with their habitual caution, they have often added “or, at any rate, the conception of an infinitesimal is so difficult, that we practically cannot reason about it with confidence and security.” Accordingly, the doctrine of limits has…
Charles S. Peirce, Chance, Love, and Logic
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
Read the chapter · Open in the reader
The banishment of the infinitesimal has all sorts of odd consequences, to which one has to become gradually accustomed. For example, there is no such thing as the next moment. The interval between one moment and the next would have to be infinitesimal, since, if we take two moments with a finite interval between them, there are always other moments in the interval. Thus if there are to be no infinitesimals, no two…
Bertrand Russell, Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays
names the idea; author linked in the graph; opens on it
Read the chapter · Open in the reader
These, I say, assert there are infinitesimals of infinitesimals of infinitesimals, &c., without ever coming to an end; so that according to them an inch does not barely contain an infinite number of parts, but an infinity of an infinity of an infinity ad infinitum of parts. Others there be who hold all orders of infinitesimals below the first to be nothing at all; thinking it with good reason absurd to imagine there…
George Berkeley, A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge
names the idea; author linked in the graph
Read the chapter · Open in the reader
Just as the notion of _length_ was originally derived from the straight line, and extended to other curves by dividing them into infinitesimal straight lines, so the notion of _curvature_ was derived from the circle, and extended to other curves by dividing them into infinitesimal circular arcs. Curvature may be regarded, originally, as a measure of the amount by which a curve departs from a straight line; in a…
Bertrand Russell, An essay on the foundations of geometry
names the idea; author linked in the graph; opens on it
Read the chapter · Open in the reader
Axiom. No reasoning about things whereof we have no idea. Therefore no reasoning about infinitesimals. Much less infinitesimals of infinitesimals, &c. Axiom. No word to be used without an idea. ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ (M420) Our eyes and senses inform us not of the existence of matter or ideas existing without the mind(252). They are not to be blam’d for the mistake.
George Berkeley, The Works of George Berkeley. Vol. 1 of 4
names the idea; author linked in the graph
Read the chapter · Open in the reader

Infinitesimal

Overview

In the original texts

Philosophers who discussed Infinitesimal

Related ideas

Opposing perspectives

Place in the tradition