Fluxions

(flük'shünz.) (Same der iv.] (Math.) A method of algebraic al calculation invented by Sir Isaac Newton, in 1665. In this branch of mathematics, magnitudes of every kind are supposed to be generated by motion. The method is the same as that of limits complicated with the idea of motion. By a comparison derived from mechanics, it represents the method of prime and ultimate ratios - a method which has been latterly abandoned for the Differential Calculus, q. v. [s. 372]