Obviously the smaller the interval δ_s_, the closer will be this
approximation. Suppose, then, that we diminish δ_s_ till it “becomes
zero.” It might appear now that when δ_s_ coincides with the point
chosen we shall obtain the velocity of the stone at this point. But
if there is no interval of path, and no interval of time, there can
be no velocity, which is an interval of path divided by an interval
of time; and if the stone is “at the point,” it does not move at all.
We must stick to the idea of intervals of space and time, and yet we
must think of these intervals as being so small that no error whatever
is involved in regarding the mean velocity deduced from them as the
“true velocity.” We therefore think of the point as being placed in
an interval of path, but not at an end-point of this interval. We
think of the velocity as a mean one, but we must have a standard of
approximation, so that we may be able to say that the mean velocity
approximates to the “actual” or _limiting_ velocity of the stone as it
passes the point, within this standard of approximation. The smaller we
make the interval, the closer will the mean velocity approximate to the
limiting velocity.
We therefore think of the stone as moving in the immediate vicinity of
the point in the sense already discussed. We say that the “immediate
vicinity” is an interval such that any point in it, _p_↓{1},
approximates to the arbitrary point _p_ which we are considering within
any standard of approximation: that is, no point in the interval is
further away from _p_ than a certain number expressing the standard
of approximation, and this can be _any_ number, however small. We say
the same thing about the interval of time. That is to say, we make the
intervals as small as we like: they can be smaller than any interval
which will cause an error in our deduced velocity, no matter how small
this error may be.
The limit of the velocity of a stone falling past a point in its
path is, therefore, that velocity towards which the mean velocities
approximate within any standard of approximation, when we regard the
interval of space as being the immediate vicinity of the point, and the
interval of time as being the time in the immediate vicinity of the
moment when the stone passes the point. The limit of the velocity is
not δ_s_/δ_t_ but _ds_/_dt_, _dt_ and _ds_ being, not finite intervals
of time and space, but “differentials.” We determine this limit by the
methods of the differential calculus.
FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTIONS AND PROBABILITY
Let the reader keep a note of the number of trumps held by himself and
partner in a large number of games of whist (the cards being cut for
trump). In 200 hands he may get such results as the following:
_No. of trumps in his own and partner’s hands_--0, 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.
_No. of times this hand was held_--0, 0, 0, 1, 9, 29, 53,
52, 35, 14, 6, 1, 0, 0.
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