Related papers: On the history of epsilontics
The Dirac delta function has solid roots in 19th century work in Fourier analysis and singular integrals by Cauchy and others, anticipating Dirac's discovery by over a century, and illuminating the nature of Cauchy's infinitesimals and his…
Cauchy's contribution to the foundations of analysis is often viewed through the lens of developments that occurred some decades later, namely the formalisation of analysis on the basis of the epsilon-delta doctrine in the context of an…
We present a new way of organizing the few mathematical statements which form introduction to Calculus: the epsilon-delta characterization of the limit is now d e r i v e d from four simple, intuitive and frequently used statements, which…
19th century real analysis received a major impetus from Cauchy's work. Cauchy mentions variable quantities, limits, and infinitesimals, but the meaning he attached to these terms is not identical to their modern meaning. Some Cauchy…
Let $f$ be a continuous real function defined in a subset of the real line. The standard definition of continuity at a point $x$ allow us to correlate any given epsilon with a (possibly depending of $x$) delta value. This pairing is known…
Under certain general conditions, an explicit formula to compute the greatest delta-epsilon function of a continuous function is given. From this formula, a new way to analyze the uniform continuity of a continuous function is given.…
The notion of number line was formed in XX c. We consider the generation of this conception in works by M. Stiefel (1544), Galilei (1633), Euler (1748), Lambert (1766), Bolzano (1830-1834), Meray (1869-1872), Cantor (1872), Dedekind (1872),…
Like his colleagues de Prony, Petit, and Poisson at the Ecole Polytechnique, Cauchy used infinitesimals in the Leibniz-Euler tradition both in his research and teaching. Cauchy applied infinitesimals in an 1826 work in differential geometry…
The usual $\epsilon,\delta$-definition of the limit of a function (whether presented at a rigorous or an intuitive level) requires a "candidate $L$" for the limit value. Thus, we have to start our first calculus course with "guessing"…
We provide a simple reformulation of the $\epsilon$-$\delta$ limit definition introduced in undergraduate calculus courses that enhances its pedagogical value for conceptual understanding and computational skill.
After a brief flirtation with logicism in 1917-1920, David Hilbert proposed his own program in the foundations of mathematics in 1920 and developed it, in concert with collaborators such as Paul Bernays and Wilhelm Ackermann, throughout the…
The notion of isometric and unitary asymptotes was introduced for power bounded operators in 1989 and was generalized in 2016--2019 by K\'erchy. In particular, it was shown that there exist operators without unitary asymptote. In this paper…
We discuss the main stages of development of the error calculation since the beginning of XIX-th century by insisting on what prefigures the use of Dirichlet forms and emphasizing the mathematical properties that make the use of Dirichlet…
Since the discovery of octonions in 1843 we seem to be still lacking a satisfactory if any theory of octave valued functions satisfactory according to standard requirements or expectation from the side of a theory like a one might look for.…
The first use of the stretched exponential function to describe the time evolution of a non-equilibrium quantity is usually credited to Rudolph Kohlrausch (1809-1858), who in 1854 applied it to the discharge of a capacitor. Attention is…
Paul Bernays and David Hilbert carefully avoided overspecification of Hilbert's epsilon-operator and axiomatized only what was relevant for their proof-theoretic investigations. Semantically, this left the epsilon-operator underspecified.…
We investigate the elimination of quantifiers in first-order formulas via Hilbert's epsilon-operator (or -binder), following Bernays' explicit definitions of the existential and the universal quantifier symbol by means of epsilon-terms.…
This is an English translation of Euler's article "Principia motus fluidorum" in which the Euler equation (in two three dimensions) has been established for the first time in 1752. The actual publication has been delayed by nine years.…
A comparison of the "theory of random sequences" developed during the twentieth century and the axiomatic approach of probability theory proposed by Kolmogorov shows the importance of sigma-additivity as extension tool. Similarly, the…
Hilbert's epsilon calculus is an extension of elementary or predicate calculus by a term-forming operator $\varepsilon$ and initial formulas involving such terms. The fundamental results about the epsilon calculus are so-called epsilon…