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mathematical analysis > calculus > infinitesimal number
number > infinitesimal number

Preferred term

infinitesimal number  

Definition

  • In mathematics, an infinitesimal number is a quantity that is closer to zero than any standard real number, but that is not zero. The word infinitesimal comes from a 17th-century Modern Latin coinage infinitesimus, which originally referred to the "infinity-th" item in a sequence. Infinitesimals do not exist in the standard real number system, but they do exist in other number systems, such as the surreal number system and the hyperreal number system, which can be thought of as the real numbers augmented with both infinitesimal and infinite quantities; the augmentations are the reciprocals of one another.
    (Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinitesimal)

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Entry terms

  • infinitesimals

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URI

http://data.loterre.fr/ark:/67375/PSR-RQ3HNGSW-G

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