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Although implicit in the development of calculus of the 17th and 18th centuries, the modern idea of the limit of a function goes back to Bolzano who, in 1817, introduced the basics of the epsilon-delta technique (see (ε, δ)-definition of limit below) to define continuous functions. However, his work was not known during his lifetime.
The epsilon–delta definition of a limit was introduced to formalize the definition of continuity. Continuity is one of the core concepts of calculus and mathematical analysis, where arguments and values of functions are real and complex numbers. The concept has been generalized to functions between metric spaces and between topological spaces.
This is known as the squeeze theorem. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] This applies even in the cases that f ( x ) and g ( x ) take on different values at c , or are discontinuous at c . Polynomials and functions of the form x a
In mathematics, a limit is the value that a function (or sequence) approaches as the argument (or index) approaches some value. [1] Limits of functions are essential to calculus and mathematical analysis, and are used to define continuity, derivatives, and integrals.
Keisler's Elementary Calculus: An Infinitesimal Approach defines continuity on page 125 in terms of infinitesimals, to the exclusion of epsilon, delta methods. The derivative is defined on page 45 using infinitesimals rather than an epsilon-delta approach. The integral is defined on page 183 in terms of infinitesimals.
Karl Theodor Wilhelm Weierstrass (/ ˈ v aɪ ər ˌ s t r ɑː s,-ˌ ʃ t r ɑː s /; [1] German: Weierstraß [ˈvaɪɐʃtʁaːs]; [2] 31 October 1815 – 19 February 1897) was a German mathematician often cited as the "father of modern analysis".
The uniform limit theorem shows that a stronger form of convergence, uniform convergence, is needed to ensure the preservation of continuity in the limit function. More precisely, this theorem states that the uniform limit of uniformly continuous functions is uniformly continuous; for a locally compact space, continuity is equivalent to local ...
H. Jerome Keisler, David Tall, and other educators maintain that the use of infinitesimals is more intuitive and more easily grasped by students than the "epsilon–delta" approach to analytic concepts. [10] This approach can sometimes provide easier proofs of results than the corresponding epsilon–delta formulation of the proof.