Calculus is the math of change. Two big ideas: differentiation (instantaneous rate of change) and integration (accumulation of change).
Quick check
Calculus has two big ideas. Which pair is right?
Where you'll meet this
Calculus models anything that changes: speed and acceleration, population growth, electrical current, the area of an irregular shape, the path of a rocket. If a quantity moves, calculus describes how.
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What you'll meet
- Limits — what a function approaches.
- Derivatives — the slope / instantaneous rate of change.
- Integrals — accumulated area under a curve.
- The Fundamental Theorem — derivatives and integrals are inverses.
Recap
- Calculus is the mathematics of change.
- Differentiation = rate of change; integration = accumulation.
- It all rests on the idea of a limit.
Newton and Leibniz invented it independently in the late 1600s — and have been arguing about who got there first ever since.