![]() The formula Δ y = f’ (x o)Δ x + o (Δ x), for example, expresses the fact that the increment Δ y of a differentiable function coincides with its differential dy = f’( x 0)Δ x with an accuracy within an infinitesimal of an order higher than the first. In the study of the function f(x) near the point x 0, one takes the increment of the independent variable Δ x = x - x 0 as the principal infinitesimal. For the case in which the variable quantity is a function of the argument x, the following explicit definition of an infinitesimal results from the general definition of a limit: the function f(x), defined in the neighborhood of the point x 0, is called an infinitesimal for x approaching x 0 if, for any positive number ∊, there is a positive number δ such that for all x ≠ x 0 which satisfy the condition ǀ x - x 0ǀ < δ, the inequality ǀ f(x)ǀ < ∊ is satisfied. The study of the orders of different kinds of infinitesimals is one of the important problems of mathematical analysis. If this limit is equal to zero, then z is called an infinitesimal of order higher than k. Then it is said that z is an infinitesimal of order k > 0 if lim (z/y k) exists and is not zero. Often, among several infinitesimals that take part in the same process of variation, one of them, let us say y, is assumed to be the principal, and the rest are compared with it. If y is infinitesimal here, then it is said that z is an infinitesimal of a higher order than y. The latter fact is often written in the form z = o(y), which reads “ z is o small with respect to y”. The variable z is called infinitesimal with respect to y if z/y is infinitesimal. In considering several variables involved in the same process of variation, the variables y and z are called equivalent if lim (z/y) = 1 if in this case y is infinitesimal, the y and z are called equivalent infinitesimals. The theory of the infinitesimal is one of the methods of constructing a theory of limits. Thus, the concept of an infinitesimal can serve as the basis of a general definition of the limit of a variable. ![]() ![]() If the limit of the variable y is finite and equal to a, then lim (y – a) = 0, and conversely. For example, the quantity y = 1/ x is an infinitesimal for an argument x that approaches infinity, but for an x that approaches zero it proves to be infinitely large. In order that the concept of an infinitesimal may have an exact meaning, it is necessary to indicate the process of variation in which the given quantity becomes an infinitesimal. In mathematics, a variable quantity that approaches a limit equal to zero.
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