Newton proved the product rule without limits, using a discrete symmetric-difference trick
ctjlewis · x · 2026-10-06
A math-history nugget from @alzzyd: Newton's demonstration of the product rule for derivatives did not use limits. Instead he took a discrete symmetric difference, and the product-of-differentials term magically cancels out — a window into how calculus was reasoned about before the modern limit formalism.
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