"Ultimately equal". Newton and the notion of limit
by
Johan Grundberg(MdH)
→
Europe/Stockholm
FB55
FB55
Description
Bishop Berkeley accused the early practitioners of calculus of using ''a most
inconsistent way of arguing such as would not be allowed in Divinity''.
Calculus was put on a satisfactory basis in the 19th century by basing it on
the concept of limit. It has recently been pointed out that there is evidence
that Newton had a better understanding of this concept than he is generally
given credit for. I will compare Newton's definition of limit with later
versions and discuss a couple of examples of how he used it.