method of increments

Increment \In"cre*ment\, n. [L. incrementum: cf. F.
   incr['e]ment. See {Increase}.]
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   1. The act or process of increasing; growth in bulk,
      guantity, number, value, or amount; augmentation;
      enlargement.
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            The seminary that furnisheth matter for the
            formation and increment of animal and vegetable
            bodies.                               --Woodward.
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            A nation, to be great, ought to be compressed in its
            increment by nations more civilized than itself.
                                                  --Coleridge.
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   2. Matter added; increase; produce; production; -- opposed to
      {decrement}. "Large increment." --J. Philips.
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   3. (Math.) The increase of a variable quantity or fraction
      from its present value to its next ascending value; the
      finite quantity, generally variable, by which a variable
      quantity is increased.
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   4. (Rhet.) An amplification without strict climax, as in the
      following passage:
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            Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true,
            whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are
            just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things
            are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, .
            . . think on these things.            --Phil. iv. 8.
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   {Infinitesimal increment} (Math.), an infinitesimally small
      variation considered in Differential Calculus. See
      {Calculus}.

   {Method of increments} (Math.), a calculus founded on the
      properties of the successive values of variable quantities
      and their differences or increments. It differs from the
      method of fluxions in treating these differences as
      finite, instead of infinitely small, and is equivalent to
      the calculus of finite differences.
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