"A variable v which approaches zero as a limit is called an
*infinitesimal*. This is written (Art. 14)
lim v = 0 or v -> 0,
and means that the numerical value of v ultimately becomes and remains less
than any preassigned positive number, however small."
Do you suppose Newton or Leibniz or for that matter Fermat or Cavalieri or
Archimedes (at least when he was being heuristic, let's say) had something
like this in mind, rather than some foreshadowing of a non-Archimedean
field in the manner of Abraham Robinson et al?
Gordon Fisher gfisher@shentel.net