[FOM] Infinitesimals

Sam Sanders sasander at cage.ugent.be
Thu Jul 12 04:32:01 EDT 2012


Dear members of the FOM list,

I would like your opinion on the following statements (Please declare them true/false, with a possible explanation why).

1) infinitesimals are used throughout physics and engineering (in some informal way, formalizable in Nonstandard Analysis).  

2) when infinitesimals are used in physics and engineering, the choice of infinitesimal does not matter
(i.e. a calculation involving an infinitesimal \e remains valid if \e is replaced with any other infinitesimal \e' .)  

3) The aforementioned independence (of the choice of infinitesimal) in physics and engineering has been observed before by X (Please fill in X).

With kindest regards,

Sam  


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