From Pythagoreans and Weierstrassians to true infinitesimal calculus
arXiv:1701.05187 · doi:10.5642/jhummath.201701.07
Abstract
In teaching infinitesimal calculus we sought to present basic concepts like continuity and convergence by comparing and contrasting various definitions, rather than presenting "the definition" to the students as a monolithic absolute. We hope that this could be useful to other instructors wishing to follow this method of instruction. A poll run at the conclusion of the course indicates that students tend to favor infinitesimal definitions over epsilon, delta ones.
15 pages, to appear in Humanistic Mathematics
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