3 ms·
An integral can be used to find the area under a curve by summing infinitesimally small areas. The point isn't to walk to the end of the infinity. It's to use
by brianpan 5y ago
An integral can be used to find the area under a curve by summing infinitesimally small areas.
The point isn't to walk to the end of the infinity. It's to use it as a tool to calculate something in a different or previously impossible way.
All tools are arbitrary without an application. But sometimes you have to figure out what's possible before you can try to find an application.
- Kranar 5y agoThat's one interpretation but it's kind of shaky without a theory of infinitesimals, and when you do work with a theory of infinitesimals it turns out not to be all that much better than working with the more traditional delta/epsilon approach, which is really quite rigorous and can be explained without the use of any infinities.