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Talk:Difference quotient

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104: 94: 73: 42: 21: 496:, for example.) The question is not whether Newton "invented" these quotients—he did not—but whether the term "Newton quotient" is standard terminology, where it appears or first appeared, whether (commonly used) competing terminology exists or not, and whether there is a trace of this debate "in the literature". 569:
I was confused by the usage of the word "point". It took some rereading to understand that whatever is meant by the word in the article, it is not the geometrical sense that I learned in school. The thing that the article calls a point is what I might call a value of a single variable (which would
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The difference quotient(s) is/are probably notable by itself/themselves, but it seems some of the content of this page (gratuitously?) goes into other things. I'm not sure why the Central difference or the Backward difference are introduced in the lead, for example. They don't appear to play a role
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If you notice, it's not as repetitive as it appears: The first order is thoroughly dissected for all three forms (general, derivative and finite), but for the second and third orders (and you need to do it to the third order for the pattern to be apparent), there are different and distinct focuses:
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Tried to typeset the forward, central, and backward differences, but for some odd reason the forward difference is duplicating and rendering in small font, for no apparent reason that I can discern, I've checked and rechecked the code, seems good but sometimes I ain't no good at being a TeX'an.:
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request, not a request for links to webpages or citations that may or may not be on other wikipedia articles. (and I looked at the web page sources - absolutely none of them said "this method is attributed to Newton" or the ilk) If it is attributed to Newton somewhere, cite it. Here. I will
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Ouch! Yeah, okay: I'm blind in one eye and half blind in the other (thus the "one eyed smilies"—"P=)"), so I have my browser settings to white (or at least light colored) text against black/dark background, so I thought "▲" was showing up as white, like in the PNG images (which I see now it
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I seem to remember that the standard Calculus textbooks call it "Newton's Quotient", e.g., George B. Thomas. But I do not have my copy handy right now. Certainly it is in Serge Lang, Calculus, and one finds it on the web on google books on page 313 of The Concise Oxford Dictionary of
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in the sequel. Also, I'm not sure from where to source the section of Higher-order difference quotients, which would be germane to this page. It appears the page was largely written (circa 2005) as a personal essay/expose rather than trying to follow some easily identifiable sources.
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I see. Kaimbridge, one thing I have to say is that you have to use standard math notation, rather than the notation you feel comfortable with. Otherwise people will not understand what you are trying to say. For example, nobody uses Ń to denote the N-th derivative, people use
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Now that the article contains standard analysis, and non-standard analysis viewpoints, I find it very confusing. Since the difference quotient is a definition of the derivative that uses limits, I think the standard analysis view is more appropriate.
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The second link you provided is broken (i think you might have cut and paste erroneously). The first link, which is a fine link with a nice summary, may not fit the wikipedia standards for reference, since it is only a webpage of some
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Some of those formulas are really big. You could as well say that they follow by analogy to what is above instead of writing them down explicitely. Or maybe some recursion is possible.
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Similar quotients were used by Fermat and Barrow before Newton, and functional notation was missing in Newton's time anyway, so Newton would not have written quotients this way. (See
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I) relationships; finite/divided difference—average derivative usage and regression. You might have a better understanding, now, why I was making the fuss about f vs. G for F' in
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does acknowledge its place in calculus theory), I just think, in the context of this article, it is best to define it as a concrete quantity (be it "iota", "jot" or whatever).
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I still don't agree with the iota business; there is no division by zero, that divided formula is only used when the quotent goes to zero, but never actually reaches it.
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Like all other articles, I expect people will pop in and tweak it here and there....I just hope the presentation retains a concrete, numerical focus (the separate
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work when I posted them). As for finding a more authoritative source (or accepting it as de facto), you might want to post that citation request to the
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I don't understand that iota business. There is no iota in calculus. I think it should be zero instead. In usual calculus, there are no infinitesimals.
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Or, the two approaches should be clearly separated in the article. Otherwise, the meaning of symbols like dx, and dy are ambiguous. In modern
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correspond to a geometrical point in a 1-dimensional geometry), commonly the x-coordinate as eventually mentioned in the article.
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at Bath. (i.e. "some random webpage") Do you have a more authoritative source? I could make a webpage that says it came from
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The second link I think was on a professor's page, so that one was iffy to begin with (both the cached and original PDF links
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By Christopher Clapham, James Nicholson. This does not say Newton invented it, just that it is called the NEwton quotient.
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I purposely chose "ń", not as an "accent", but as a "prime"/derivative (i.e., the "nth" derivative); likewise, "ã" in P
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to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the
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Because if you just say "zero", the purists will jump down your throat saying "division by zero is undefined"—I
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I agree that this article is a mess. I had earlier proposed deleting it and replacing it with a redirect to
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doesn't—GROSS!!), plus I couldn't find the upside down "Δ" (not considering "&nabla"). I'll fix them.
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If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with
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at the beginning based on typical college textbooks, but I think the page needs more work throughout.
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on Knowledge. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join
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before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template
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articles, as they are more heavily edited by (much) more qualified people who may know! P=)
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Yes many places seem to use the word "point" when the correct term is just "real number".
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General—Leibniz regression/breakdown (factoring?); derivative—derivative/function (F-: -->
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If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with
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Why do you put accents on things, like Ń? Maybe you just need to use a new variable?
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Wonder what you think. I will help with some work on this article later. Cheers,
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note when I first introduce it that it is usually expressed as a limit (and note
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several given, including for Newton's attribution, which is given in the
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after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add
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http://www.physics.arizona.edu/~restrepo/475A/Notes/sourcea/node31.html
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The Delta needs to be empty delta, like this: Δ and not ▲. Same for ∇.
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to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
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Hi Kaimbridge. Wow, that's a lot of work! A couple of remarks.
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came from Newton, but we should be formally correct about it.
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When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the
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articles delve into the more abstract, analytical aspects).
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https://en.wikipedia.org/Isaac_Barrow#Calculating_tangents
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https://www.brainm.com/software/pubs/math/471fermatMT.pdf
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I have just added archive links to one external link on
1070: 875: 766: 689: 619: 316: 121:, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of 1139:using the archive tool instructions below. Editors 935: 855: 746: 676: 335: 936:{\displaystyle \nabla F(P)=F(P)-F(P-\Delta P).} 531: 446: 403: 290: 1125:This message was posted before February 2018. 747:{\displaystyle \Delta F(P)=F(P+\Delta P)-F(P)} 677:{\displaystyle \Delta F(P)=F(P+\Delta P)-F(P)} 8: 421:restore the citation requests you deleted. 234:denotes a "smoothing" average (and I use "P 386:Regarding the requests for sources, there 67: 982:(which should be expanded if necessary). 874: 831: 797: 765: 688: 618: 321: 315: 69: 39: 587:2A02:1210:5A6B:9600:9839:D2D:41D1:5B1C 498:2A02:1210:5A6B:9600:9839:D2D:41D1:5B1C 1112:to let others know (documentation at 7: 1034:for information supporting this) In 238:" in the summation to distinguish "P 115:This article is within the scope of 1030:, they can be of finite size. (see 955:I see this page was written from a 58:It is of interest to the following 921: 876: 841: 807: 720: 690: 650: 620: 14: 1210:Mid-priority mathematics articles 1069:. Please take a moment to review 135:Knowledge:WikiProject Mathematics 138:Template:WikiProject Mathematics 102: 92: 71: 40: 19: 220:Fundamental theorem of calculus 155:This article has been rated as 1093:Added archive {newarchive} to 959:point of view. I've added the 927: 912: 903: 897: 888: 882: 847: 822: 813: 788: 779: 773: 741: 735: 726: 711: 702: 696: 671: 665: 656: 641: 632: 626: 328: 322: 1: 1191:03:49, 28 February 2016 (UTC) 560:14:02, 4 September 2014 (UTC) 129:and see a list of open tasks. 1205:C-Class mathematics articles 539:15:04, 25 January 2008 (UTC) 484:23:41, 24 January 2008 (UTC) 454:01:27, 19 January 2008 (UTC) 431:23:53, 18 January 2008 (UTC) 370:01:07, 8 December 2005 (UTC) 298:19:50, 7 December 2005 (UTC) 261:16:23, 7 December 2005 (UTC) 595:09:48, 1 October 2022 (UTC) 506:10:15, 1 October 2022 (UTC) 1226: 1156:(last update: 5 June 2024) 1087:|deny=InternetArchiveBot}} 1062:Hello fellow Wikipedians, 1038:, they are infinitesimal. 1032:differential of a function 1007:11:41, 27 April 2015 (UTC) 992:14:39, 26 April 2015 (UTC) 973:09:44, 26 April 2015 (UTC) 580:21:40, 17 July 2008 (UTC) 565:Terminology usage: Point 411:15:39, 25 July 2007 (UTC) 246:", two different points). 154: 87: 66: 30:by an editor in the past. 1048:01:51, 21 May 2015 (UTC) 1022:00:26, 21 May 2015 (UTC) 161:project's priority scale 1058:External links modified 961:more standard viewpoint 336:{\displaystyle f^{(N)}} 118:WikiProject Mathematics 937: 857: 748: 678: 337: 48:This article is rated 1036:non-standard analysis 957:non-standard analysis 938: 858: 749: 679: 338: 28:proposed for deletion 1137:regular verification 1073:. If necessary, add 873: 866:Backward difference: 764: 687: 617: 382:Citation and sources 314: 141:mathematics articles 1127:After February 2018 1104:parameter below to 1067:Difference quotient 757:Central difference: 610:Forward difference: 436:Do either of these 271:divided differences 1132:InternetArchiveBot 999:Some1Redirects4You 965:Some1Redirects4You 933: 853: 744: 674: 333: 222:—or maybe not! P=) 110:Mathematics portal 54:content assessment 1189: 1157: 980:finite difference 839: 805: 175: 174: 171: 170: 167: 166: 34: 33: 1217: 1185: 1184:Talk to my owner 1180: 1155: 1154: 1133: 1121: 1115: 1088: 1080: 942: 940: 939: 934: 862: 860: 859: 854: 840: 832: 806: 798: 753: 751: 750: 745: 683: 681: 680: 675: 601:tried to typeset 533: 448: 405: 394:and (now added) 342: 340: 339: 334: 332: 331: 292: 143: 142: 139: 136: 133: 112: 107: 106: 96: 89: 88: 83: 75: 68: 51: 45: 44: 36: 23: 16: 1225: 1224: 1220: 1219: 1218: 1216: 1215: 1214: 1195: 1194: 1188: 1183: 1148: 1141:have permission 1131: 1119: 1113: 1082: 1074: 1060: 953: 948: 871: 870: 762: 761: 685: 684: 615: 614: 603: 567: 562: 384: 362:Oleg Alexandrov 317: 312: 311: 253:Oleg Alexandrov 245: 241: 237: 233: 180: 140: 137: 134: 131: 130: 108: 101: 81: 52:on Knowledge's 49: 12: 11: 5: 1223: 1221: 1213: 1212: 1207: 1197: 1196: 1181: 1175: 1174: 1167: 1098: 1097: 1059: 1056: 1055: 1054: 1053: 1052: 1051: 1050: 1024: 952: 951:Infinitesimals 949: 947: 944: 932: 929: 926: 923: 920: 917: 914: 911: 908: 905: 902: 899: 896: 893: 890: 887: 884: 881: 878: 868: 867: 852: 849: 846: 843: 838: 835: 830: 827: 824: 821: 818: 815: 812: 809: 804: 801: 796: 793: 790: 787: 784: 781: 778: 775: 772: 769: 759: 758: 743: 740: 737: 734: 731: 728: 725: 722: 719: 716: 713: 710: 707: 704: 701: 698: 695: 692: 673: 670: 667: 664: 661: 658: 655: 652: 649: 646: 643: 640: 637: 634: 631: 628: 625: 622: 612: 611: 602: 599: 598: 597: 572:207.189.230.42 566: 563: 552:98.109.232.157 549: 548: 547: 546: 545: 512: 511: 510: 509: 508: 434: 433: 383: 380: 379: 378: 377: 376: 375: 374: 373: 372: 351: 350: 349: 348: 347: 346: 345: 344: 330: 327: 324: 320: 284: 283: 282: 281: 278: 249: 248: 247: 243: 239: 235: 231: 225: 224: 223: 209: 208: 207: 193: 192: 191: 179: 176: 173: 172: 169: 168: 165: 164: 153: 147: 146: 144: 127:the discussion 114: 113: 97: 85: 84: 76: 64: 63: 57: 46: 32: 31: 26:This page was 24: 13: 10: 9: 6: 4: 3: 2: 1222: 1211: 1208: 1206: 1203: 1202: 1200: 1193: 1192: 1186: 1179: 1172: 1168: 1165: 1161: 1160: 1159: 1152: 1146: 1142: 1138: 1134: 1128: 1123: 1118: 1111: 1107: 1103: 1096: 1092: 1091: 1090: 1086: 1078: 1072: 1068: 1063: 1057: 1049: 1045: 1041: 1037: 1033: 1029: 1028:real analysis 1025: 1023: 1019: 1015: 1010: 1009: 1008: 1004: 1000: 995: 994: 993: 989: 985: 981: 977: 976: 975: 974: 970: 966: 962: 958: 950: 945: 943: 930: 924: 918: 915: 909: 906: 900: 894: 891: 885: 879: 865: 864: 863: 850: 844: 836: 833: 828: 825: 819: 816: 810: 802: 799: 794: 791: 785: 782: 776: 770: 767: 756: 755: 754: 738: 732: 729: 723: 717: 714: 708: 705: 699: 693: 668: 662: 659: 653: 647: 644: 638: 635: 629: 623: 609: 608: 607: 600: 596: 592: 588: 584: 583: 582: 581: 577: 573: 564: 561: 557: 553: 542: 541: 540: 537: 536: 530: 525: 524:quotient rule 521: 517: 513: 507: 503: 499: 495: 491: 487: 486: 485: 481: 477: 476:198.163.150.8 473: 469: 465: 464:undergraduate 460: 459: 458: 457: 456: 455: 452: 451: 445: 440: 438: 432: 428: 424: 423:198.163.150.8 419: 415: 414: 413: 412: 409: 408: 402: 397: 396:quotient rule 393: 389: 381: 371: 367: 363: 359: 358: 357: 356: 355: 354: 353: 352: 325: 318: 308: 307: 306: 305: 304: 303: 302: 301: 300: 299: 296: 295: 289: 279: 276: 272: 268: 264: 263: 262: 258: 254: 250: 229: 228: 226: 221: 213: 212: 210: 205: 204:infinitesimal 201: 197: 196: 194: 188: 187: 185: 184: 183: 177: 162: 158: 152: 149: 148: 145: 128: 124: 120: 119: 111: 105: 100: 98: 95: 91: 90: 86: 80: 77: 74: 70: 65: 61: 55: 47: 43: 38: 37: 29: 25: 22: 18: 17: 1176: 1151:source check 1130: 1124: 1109: 1105: 1101: 1099: 1064: 1061: 954: 869: 760: 613: 604: 568: 534: 528: 515: 471: 449: 443: 435: 406: 400: 387: 385: 293: 287: 285: 199: 181: 157:Mid-priority 156: 116: 82:Mid‑priority 60:WikiProjects 1117:Sourcecheck 544:Mathematics 132:Mathematics 123:mathematics 79:Mathematics 1199:Categories 1040:Russphelan 1014:Russphelan 532:Kaimbridge 520:derivative 447:Kaimbridge 404:Kaimbridge 398:articles. 392:derivative 291:Kaimbridge 267:derivative 1171:this tool 1164:this tool 946:POV check 416:It was a 343:for that. 242:" from "P 1177:Cheers.— 1077:cbignore 472:probably 441:count? 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infinitesimal
Fundamental theorem of calculus
Oleg Alexandrov
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Oleg Alexandrov
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