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Indian mathematician stated that 0/0 is 0.
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Argued that a quantity divided by zero yields an infinite quantity.
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The Anglican Bishop published a 1600 page work titled "The Annals of the World" where he used detailed readings of the Bible and other sources to determine the date of the creation of the world to be October 23, 4004 B.C.
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Both calculated instantaneous speed using infinitesimals, but they did not regard them as numbers due to the logical inconsistency that resulted from the use of them as numbers. Leibniz himself called them "useful fictions."
The following extended response gives more insight into the views of both Newton and Leibniz as well as a link to a great video explaining the mathematics of infinitesimals: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QUiIsRiqLQGbFWB7F4BMcwox_qSLBhvaDIQdIeHLGhc/edit -
Wrote first calculus textbook stating that two values differing by an infinitesimal can be treated as equal. He thought infinitesimals were at the same time both equal and unequal to 0 and exist as numbers.
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Gave strong criticism against infinitesimals and the reality of instantaneous speed at all. Instantaneous velocity was a physical impossibility.
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Estimated the Age of the Earth to be 2 billion years old.
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Used measurements on a ball of cooling iron to estimate the earth as 70 thousand years old.
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The Swiss mathematician gave the result that a quantity divided by 0 gives infinity in his textbook "Complete Introduction to Algebra."
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Argued that division by 0 is meaningless, and he advised his readers to "Never divide by 0."
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Modeled the earth as a cooling molten core and used his knowledge of thermodynamics to calculate the age of the earth to be between 20-400 million years old. His formal estimate was 98 million years.
More discussion of Lord Kelvin's involvement in the Age of the Earth debate is available at the following link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Jch6FZti6NPhaWBOgEL5kwYN35e27ln-psVzq5E8VHs/edit -
Invented the Crookes Tube, which would be the device necessary for many of the early experiments in the discovery of the electron. It is of note that the Crookes Tube was later known as the Cathode Ray Tube.
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Though the infinitesimal ds/dt that has long been used to calculate instantaneous velocity is just an archaic way of expressing a limit. Believed infinitesimals not reality, they were just a crude representation of limits.
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Calculated charge to mass ratio bounds for the yet to be identified electron.
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Proposed negatively-charged electron as a fundamental particle after cathode ray tube experiments. Credited as discoverer of the electron.
More discussion of cathode rays and the experiments of J.J. Thomson is available with a great video explanation of one of his experiments at the following link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1otsEXeR6DLdcTea2-IHXIgmJ3AyIgDs9HripmXbmyOw/edit -
Theorized that the cathode ray was composed of negatively charged particles that were from residual gas in tube being split apart.
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Accurately determined the charge of an electron.
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Used radiometric dating to calculate the age of the earth to be between 1.6 and 3 billion years. Published this in "The Age of the Earth, an Introduction to Geological Ideas."
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Devised new and more encompassing numerical system known as nonstandard analysis. Believed that infinitesimals were formal objects that behaved as numbers and were coined "nonstandard numbers."
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Pioneered a form of arithmetic known as transreal arithmetic. In this system of numbers a quantity divided by 0 is infinity, a negative number divided by zero is a negative quantity, and 0 divided by 0 a number known as nullity.
For a more robust discussion of transreal arithmetic and James Anderson's contributions to the topic, please refer to the extended response at the following link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RQai1Q2W9gTZVOUpWGBX7TnvE1bsOc4JfJSvsvpFOW0/edit
