Nonstandard Student Conceptions About Infinitesimals

2010 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Ely

This is a case study of an undergraduate calculus student's nonstandard conceptions of the real number line. Interviews with the student reveal robust conceptions of the real number line that include infinitesimal and infinite quantities and distances. Similarities between these conceptions and those of G. W. Leibniz are discussed and illuminated by the formalization of infinitesimals in A. Robinson's nonstandard analysis. These similarities suggest that these student conceptions are not mere misconceptions, but are nonstandard conceptions, pieces of knowledge that could be built into a system of real numbers proven to be as mathematically consistent and powerful as the standard system. This provides a new perspective on students' “struggles” with the real numbers, and adds to the discussion about the relationship between student conceptions and historical conceptions by focusing on mechanisms for maintaining cognitive and mathematical consistency.

1984 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 343-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Freiling

Abstract.Banach introduced the following two-person, perfect information, infinite game on the real numbers and asked the question: For which sets A ⊆ R is the game determined?Rules: The two players alternate moves starting with player I. Each move an is legal iff it is a real number and 0 < an, and for n > 1, an < an−1. The first player to make an illegal move loses. Otherwise all moves are legal and I wins iff exists and .We will look at this game and some variations of it, called Banach games. In each case we attempt to find the relationship between Banach determinacy and the determinacy of other well-known and much-studied games.


1986 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 190-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Freiling

AbstractWe will give a simple philosophical “proof” of the negation of Cantor's continuum hypothesis (CH). (A formal proof for or against CH from the axioms of ZFC is impossible; see Cohen [1].) We will assume the axioms of ZFC together with intuitively clear axioms which are based on some intuition of Stuart Davidson and an old theorem of Sierpiński and are justified by the symmetry in a thought experiment throwing darts at the real number line. We will in fact show why there must be an infinity of cardinalities between the integers and the reals. We will also show why Martin's Axiom must be false, and we will prove the extension of Fubini's Theorem for Lebesgue measure where joint measurability is not assumed. Following the philosophy—if you reject CH you are only two steps away from rejecting the axiom of choice (AC)—we will point out along the way some extensions of our intuition which contradict AC.


Author(s):  
Juan Ramirez

We present the real number system as a natural generalization of the natural numbers. First, we prove the co-finite topology, $Cof(\mathbb N)$, is isomorphic to the natural numbers. Then, we generalize these results to describe the continuum $[0,1]$. Then we prove the power set $2^{\mathbb Z}$ contains a subset isomorphic to the non-negative real numbers, with all its defining structure of operations and order. Finally, we provide two different constructions of the entire real number line. We see that the power set $2^{\mathbb N}$ can be given the defining structure of $\mathbb R$. The constructions here provided give simple rules for calculating addition, multiplication, subtraction, division, powers and rational powers of real numbers, and logarithms. The supremum and infimum are explicitly constructed by means of a well defined algorithm that ends in denumerable steps. In section 5 we give evidence our construction of $\mathbb N$ and $\mathbb R$ are canonical; these constructions are as natural as possible. In the same section, we propose a new axiomatic basis for analysis. In the last section we provide a series of graphic representations and physical models that can be used to represent the real number system. We conclude that the system of real numbers is completely defined by the order structure of $\mathbb N$.}


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. e0261213
Author(s):  
Shaofeng Lu ◽  
Yuefeng Lu ◽  
Ying Sun

The determination of the relation between a number and a numerical interval is one of the core problems in the scientific calculation of privacy protection. The calculation of the relationship between two numbers and a numerical interval to protect privacy is also the basic problem of collaborative computing. It is widely used in data queries, location search and other fields. At present, most of the solutions are still fundamentally limited to the integer level, and there are few solutions at the real number level. To solve these problems, this paper first uses Bernoulli inequality generalization and a monotonic function property to extend the solution to the real number level and designs two new protocols based on the homomorphic encryption scheme, which can not only protect the data privacy of both parties involved in the calculation, but also extend the number domain to real numbers. In addition, this paper designs a solution to the confidential cooperative determination problem between real numbers by using the sign function and homomorphism multiplication. Theoretical analysis shows that the proposed solution is safe and efficient. Finally, some extension applications based on this protocol are given.


1971 ◽  
Vol 225 (2) ◽  
pp. 92-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn Arthur Steen

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