From: NoEMail@home.org   
      
   Paul N  wrote:   
   > Hi all   
   >   
   > Recently there was a discussion in comp.theory about infinitesimals. It seems   
   I can't post to that group but can post to this one, so hopefully people will   
   not mind too much and some kind person might even post a link there to my post   
   here? > > I wanted to point out that Ian Stewart had written an article called   
   "Beyond the vanishing point" in which he discusses the strange situation in   
   which doing calculus by using very small numbers and then treating these   
   numbers   
   as zero after you've divided through by them is not valid but nevertheless   
   seems   
   to work. Here is some of the article as a taster:   
   >   
      
   I respect Ian Stewart because of his books, but here is being an alarmist.   
      
   Continuous functions are defined as those for which the infinitesmal analysis   
   works. Calculus applies to such functions.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)