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    A New Insight Into An Old Calculus Mystery:: DX, Dy and The Nature of The Infinitesimal

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    tomdavis777
    This document provides an introduction and overview of a new insight into the nature of derivatives and infinitesimals in calculus. It discusses how students often struggle to understand what ∆x, ∆y, dx, and dy represent, as textbooks provide contradictory explanations. The document then presents a new way of visualizing the derivative as the continuous pivoting of a line until it is coincident with the tangent line. This provides intuitive understanding of how the limit definition works without needing to consider infinitesimals as arbitrarily small real numbers. It also explains how this insight provides clearer understanding of the fundamental theorem of calculus relating integration and differentiation.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    A New Insight Into An Old Calculus Mystery:: DX, Dy and The Nature of The Infinitesimal

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    tomdavis777
    35 views6 pages
    This document provides an introduction and overview of a new insight into the nature of derivatives and infinitesimals in calculus. It discusses how students often struggle to understand what ∆x, ∆y, dx, and dy represent, as textbooks provide contradictory explanations. The document then presents a new way of visualizing the derivative as the continuous pivoting of a line until it is coincident with the tangent line. This provides intuitive understanding of how the limit definition works without needing to consider infinitesimals as arbitrarily small real numbers. It also explains how this insight provides clearer understanding of the fundamental theorem of calculus relating integration and differentiation.

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    Mystery

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    calculus

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    This document provides an introduction and overview of a new insight into the nature of derivatives and infinitesimals in calculus. It discusses how students often struggle to understand what ∆x, ∆y, dx, and dy represent, as textbooks provide contradictory explanations. The document then presents a new way of visualizing the derivative as the continuous pivoting of a line until it is coincident with the tangent line. This provides intuitive understanding of how the limit definition works without needing to consider infinitesimals as arbitrarily small real numbers. It also explains how this insight provides clearer understanding of the fundamental theorem of calculus relating integration and differentiation.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    35 views6 pages

    A New Insight Into An Old Calculus Mystery:: DX, Dy and The Nature of The Infinitesimal

    Uploaded by

    tomdavis777
    This document provides an introduction and overview of a new insight into the nature of derivatives and infinitesimals in calculus. It discusses how students often struggle to understand what ∆x, ∆y, dx, and dy represent, as textbooks provide contradictory explanations. The document then presents a new way of visualizing the derivative as the continuous pivoting of a line until it is coincident with the tangent line. This provides intuitive understanding of how the limit definition works without needing to consider infinitesimals as arbitrarily small real numbers. It also explains how this insight provides clearer understanding of the fundamental theorem of calculus relating integration and differentiation.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 6

    A New Insight Into an Old Calculus Mystery...

    A New Insight Into an Old Calculus Mystery: x, y,


    dx, dy and the Nature of the Infinitesimal

    by

    Peter Schorer
    Email: peteschorer@gmail.com
    Phone: (510) 548-3827

    Mar. 5, 2015

    1
    A New Insight Into an Old Calculus Mystery...

    Introduction
    In this paper, we set forth what seems to be a new insight into the nature of the derivative f ´(x)
    in elementary calculus — an insight that we believe answers at least some of the questions that
    students often have.

    The Definition of the Derivative


    The standard textbook definition of the derivative1, for a continuous function y = f(x) — a
    curve — having a derivative at x, is:
    (1)

     x + x  – f  x - = lim y dy
    f  (x) = lim f------------------------------------- ------ = ------
    x  0 x x  0 x dx

    Students are taught, via a diagram such as that in “Fig. 1” on page 4 that f ´(x) is the slope of
    the tangent line at the point f(x) on the curve.

    Questions That Bother Some Students


    Among the questions that bother students in the first and second semesters of calculus are the
    following:

    What is the difference between x and y, and dx and dy?2 Sometimes it is said that these are
    infinitesimals, that is, numbers that are “arbitrarily small but not 0”. What kind of numbers are
    those? It doesn’t seem possible that they are very small positive real numbers, because no matter
    how small a positive real number we name, there is always a smaller one.

    The Contradictory Answers That Are Given in Calculus Textbooks

    “...the derivative...is the quotient of the differentials dy and dx...3

    “Leibniz’s notation [dy/dx, etc.] suggests that the limit [that defines dy/dx] is a quotient,
    whereas the limit ... is not a quotient. Leibniz’s symbol ... must be taken in its entirety.”4

    “...in the notation...dy/dx, the symbols dy and dx have no meaning by themselves. The symbol
    dy/dx should be thought of as a single entity, just like the numeral 8, which we do not think of as
    formed of two 0’s.”5

    1. First set forth by Bolzano in 1817.


    2. Some, but by no means all, calculus textbooks set dy = x and dy = y.
    3. Courant, R., Differential and Integral Calculus, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1970, p. 107.
    4. Kline, Morris, Calculus: An Intuitive and Physical Approach, Dover Publications, Inc., Mineola, N.Y.,
    1998, p. 26.
    5. Stein, Sherman, Calculus and Analytical Geometry, McGraw-Hill Book Company, N.Y., 1973 , p. 90

    2
    A New Insight Into an Old Calculus Mystery...

    “...in many calculations and formal transformations, we can deal with the symbols dy and dx
    in exactly the same way as if they were ordinary numbers.”1

    A Brief Look at the History


    The nature of dy/dx baffled some of the best mathematicians for at least the first 150 years
    after the calculus was discovered..

    “As to the ultimate meanings of dy, dx and dy/dx, Leibniz remained vague. He spoke of dx as
    the difference in x values between two infinitely near points and of the tangent as the line joining
    such points... The infinitely small dx and dy were sometimes described as vanishing or incipient
    quantities, as opposed to quantities already formed. These indefinitely small quantities were not
    zero, but were smaller than any finite quantity.”2

    “[Euler] denied the concept of an infinitesimal, a quantity less than any assignable magnitude
    and yet not 0. In his Institutiones of 1755 he argued,

    There is no doubt that every quantity can be diminished to such an extent that it vanishes
    completely and disappears. But an infinitely small quantity is nothing other than a vanish-
    ing quantity and therefore the thing itself equals 0. It is in harmony also with that defini-
    tion of infinitely small things, by which the things are said to be less than any assignable
    quantity; it certainly would have to be nothing; for unless it is equal to 0, an equal quantity
    can be assigned to it, which is contrary to hypothesis.

    “Since Euler banished differentials he had to explain how dy/dx, which was 0/0 for him, could
    equality a definite number. He does this as follows: Since for any number n, n • 0 = 0, then n =
    0/0. The derivative is just a convenient way of determining 0/0...”3

    “[D’Alambert] held that no such thing as an infinitesimal [for example, dy or dx] existed in its
    own right.

    “A quantity is something or nothing: if it is something, it has not yet vanished; if it is nothing,


    it has literally vanished. The supposition that there is an intermediate state between these two is a
    chimera.”4

    A New Insight
    Consider the following diagram.

    1. Courant, op. cit., p. 101.


    2. Kline, Morris, Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times, Oxford University Press, N.Y.,
    1972, p. 385.
    3. Kline, ibid., p. 429
    4. D’Alambert, Jean le Rond, Mélanges des Littérature, d’histoire, et de philosophie, 4th ed., 5 vols.
    Amsterdam, 1767, quoted in Boyer, Carl B., The History of the Calculus and Its Conceptual Development,
    Dover Publications, Inc., N.Y., 1959, p. 248.

    3
    A New Insight Into an Old Calculus Mystery...

    E
    F
    y
    f(x)
    A D B

    Fig. 1
    For a given curve y = f(x) and a given x, we fix points A, B, and C . A is at the point f(x).
    Angle BAC = the slope of the tangent to the curve at point A. The tangent of BAC = BC/AB =
    f (x) = dy/dx.
    y = DF; x = AD.
    The tangent of angle DAF = y/x = DF/AD = BE/AB. Neither BE nor AB becomes arbi-
    trarily small as x and y approach zero. And yet y/x = DF/AD = BE/AB always. (E
    moves vertically up the line BC throughout this process, of course.)
    As x = AD approaches zero, the point F moves to the left along the curve y = f(x) and y =
    DF grows smaller. The angle DAF increases continuously until it eventually equals the angle
    BAC. The point E moves vertically upward continuously until BE eventually equals the line seg-
    ment BC. These two equalities occur when x = 0.
    We need not wrack our brains trying to figure out the value of y/x when both y and x = 0.
    The value is simply BC/AB.

    So there is nothing mysterious here provided we fix our attention on the continuous movement
    of the line AFE as x = AD approaches zero. AFE pivots continuously about the point A as the
    angle DAF increases. Eventually, AFE is at the same angle as the angle of the tangent, BAC. All
    we have done is pivot a line (AFE) about a point (A) until the line is coincident with another line
    (AC). That is all!

    We will welcome the reader’s comments.

    The Fundamental Theorem of the Calculus Made Clear


    Although most calculus students understand that the Fundamental Theorem of the Calculus
    states that integration and finding the derivative are inverse operations, their understanding of the
    proof varies. In any case, few students, in my experience, can demonstrate an intuitive grasp of
    why the Theorem is true. I hope the following will aid in obtaining that intuitive grasp.

    4
    A New Insight Into an Old Calculus Mystery...

    We begin by stating the Theorem:

    (1) x
    If F(x) = 0 f  x  dx
    dF  x 
    Then -------------- = f  x 
    dx

    or, in other words,

    (2)
    dF(x) = f(x)dx,

    You probably know that the value of F(x) is the area under the derivative curve from the point
    0 to the point x. This area is the sum of the areas of infinitesimal rectangles.

    Equation (2) means:

    (3)
    the infinitesimal change dF(x) in the integral curve at the point x =
    the area f(x)dx of the infinitesimal rectangle of height f(x) and width dx that is positioned at x.

    It’s that simple! And this is apparently the way Newton thought of the relation between the
    integral and derivative curves — in other words, how he thought of the Fundamental Theorem of
    the Calculus. (See Carl B. Boyer’s The History of the Calculus and Its Conceptual Development1,
    p. 191.)
    We are preparing drawings to illustrate (3), but meantime, you are encouraged to draw some
    derivative curves, and their integral curves, and see how (3) works.

    1. Dover Publications, Inc., N.Y., 1959

    5
    A New Insight Into an Old Calculus Mystery...

    Appendix A — The Infinitesimal in the 20th Century


    “Paul du Bois-Reymond [1831-1889], Otto Stolz [1842-1905], and Felix Klein [1849-1925]
    [thought] that a consistent theory based on infinitesimals was possible. In fact, Klein identified
    the very axiom of real numbers, the Archimedian axiom1, that would have to be abandoned to
    obtain such a theory. Skolem [1887-1963] himself in 1934 began the introduction of new num-
    bers — hyperintegers — which were different from the ordinary real numbers, and he established
    some of their properties. The culmination of a series of papers by several mathematicians was the
    creation of a new theory which legitimizes infinitesimals. The most important contributor was
    Abraham Robinson (1918-1974).
    “The new system, called non-standard analysis, introduces hyperreal numbers, which include
    the old real numbers and infinitesimals. An infinitesimal is defined practically as Leibniz did;
    that is, a positive infinitesimal is a number less than any ordinary real number but greater than
    zero and, similarly, a negative infinitesimal is greater than any negative real number but less than
    zero. These infinitesimals are fixed numbers, not variables in Leibniz’s sense nor variables which
    approach zero, which is the sense in which Cauchy sometimes used the term. Moreover, non-
    standard analysis introduces new infinite numbers, which are the reciprocals of infinitesimals but
    not the transfinite numbers of Cantor. Every finite hyperreal number r is of the form x + where
    x is an ordinary real number and is an infinitesimal.
    “With the notion of the infinitesimal, one can speak of two hyperreal numbers being infinitely
    close. This means merely that their difference is an infinitesimal. Every hyperreal number is also
    infinitely close to an (ordinary) real number, the difference being infinitesimal. We can operate
    with the hyperreals just as we operate with ordinary real numbers.
    “With this new hyperreal number system, we can introduce functions whose values may be
    ordinary or hyperreal numbers...” — Kline, Morris, Mathematics: The Loss of Certainty, Oxford
    University Press, N.Y., 1980, pp. 274-75.

    1. This “asserts that, given any real number a, there is a whole number n such that na is larger than any other
    given real number b.” — ibid., p. 274.

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