Definition for a infinitesimals number

JonF
Messages
621
Reaction score
1
I know what all of these are, but I’ve never seen or heard a formal definition for them, could someone please provide one?

1) a number
2) a real number
3) a integer
4) a rational number
5) a irrational number
6) a transcendental number
7) a infinitesimals number
8) a hyper real number
9) a set
10) a element
11) an array
12) a constant
13) a variable
 
Mathematics news on Phys.org
"a number" is not a well-defined term.

But we'll start with the integers. The usual way to define the integers if you need such a formal definition is:

Let 0 be the cardinality of the empty set, 1 the card of the set containing the empty set, now use the axiom of infinity in your set theory to construct the naturals.

the negatives are constructed by adding formal inverses (-n is be definition the number such the n+(-n)=0

what we have now is a ring, in fact a domain, so we may localize with respect to the non-zero divisors, ie all non-zero numbers, and the field of fractions so formed is the rationals.

this field has a metric on it, a distance. it is not complete with respect to that metric. the completion is the real numbers. elements of the reals that are not rational, ie are not equivalent to a cauchy sequence q_i = q for all i, q rational are called irrational.

a transcendental number is a real (or complex) number that does not satisfy a (finite degree) polynomial with integer coefficients (strictly speaking all polynomials must have finite degree).

infinitesimals are an extension of the reals obtained by adjoining elements called things like e (epsilon), which is, formally, less than all positive reals by an extension of the ordering on R. They are not used much in mathematics.

hyperreals similar to infinitesimals, in that they are a nice trick but not much used. plenty of websites will give you an introduction.

a set is an element in a set theory, or at least that is the modern view point. loosely they are collections of objects satisfying certain axioms

element means element in the usual sense of the word

as does array

and constant,


and variable.
 
Insights auto threads is broken atm, so I'm manually creating these for new Insight articles. In Dirac’s Principles of Quantum Mechanics published in 1930 he introduced a “convenient notation” he referred to as a “delta function” which he treated as a continuum analog to the discrete Kronecker delta. The Kronecker delta is simply the indexed components of the identity operator in matrix algebra Source: https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/what-exactly-is-diracs-delta-function/ by...
Fermat's Last Theorem has long been one of the most famous mathematical problems, and is now one of the most famous theorems. It simply states that the equation $$ a^n+b^n=c^n $$ has no solutions with positive integers if ##n>2.## It was named after Pierre de Fermat (1607-1665). The problem itself stems from the book Arithmetica by Diophantus of Alexandria. It gained popularity because Fermat noted in his copy "Cubum autem in duos cubos, aut quadratoquadratum in duos quadratoquadratos, et...
I'm interested to know whether the equation $$1 = 2 - \frac{1}{2 - \frac{1}{2 - \cdots}}$$ is true or not. It can be shown easily that if the continued fraction converges, it cannot converge to anything else than 1. It seems that if the continued fraction converges, the convergence is very slow. The apparent slowness of the convergence makes it difficult to estimate the presence of true convergence numerically. At the moment I don't know whether this converges or not.
Back
Top