What should i know for calculus

AP Students. Already enrolled? Join your class in My AP. Not a Student? Go to My AP. About the Course About the Exam. About the Course Explore the concepts, methods, and applications of differential and integral calculus, including topics such as parametric, polar, and vector functions, and series.

Skills You'll Learn Determining expressions and values using mathematical procedures and rules Connecting representations Justifying reasoning and solutions Using correct notation, language, and mathematical conventions to communicate results or solutions.

College Course Equivalent A first-semester college calculus course and the subsequent single-variable calculus course. Recommended Prerequisites You should have successfully completed courses in which you studied algebra, geometry, trigonometry, analytic geometry, and elementary functions.

Mon, May 9, , 8 AM Local. About the Units The course content outlined below is organized into commonly taught units of study that provide one possible sequence for the course. Course Content. Expand All Collapse All. Topics may include: How limits help us to handle change at an instant Definition and properties of limits in various representations Definitions of continuity of a function at a point and over a domain Asymptotes and limits at infinity Reasoning using the Squeeze theorem and the Intermediate Value Theorem.

Topics may include: Defining the derivative of a function at a point and as a function Connecting differentiability and continuity Determining derivatives for elementary functions Applying differentiation rules. Even just watching a quick video here might help you get a little motivated or intrigued to learn more.

The Calculus is all about limit concepts. So, you need to understand some basic computations with all type of functions like polynomials, exponentials, logarithmic, trigonometric, inverse trigonometric, hyperbolic function In order to visualize the Calculus concepts, you need to know the geometric shapes in 2D and 3d and its properties. You need to solve the equations, sometimes systems.

So, you would know Algebra. Also, you must familiar with all types of coordinate systems, rectangular, polar, cylindrical and sphere. Then, you enjoy the Calculus. It is great fun. Explain exactly why you need to learn calculus in order to program an algorithm. If you can identify a specific need, then you can focus on that specific requirement or need. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group.

Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Requirements to learn calculus Ask Question. Asked 4 years, 9 months ago. Active 1 year, 5 months ago. Viewed 11k times. Improve this question. Mike Pierce 4, 1 1 gold badge 15 15 silver badges 50 50 bronze badges. In other words, find the slope near one point, find the slope near another point, subtract the two slopes to find a numerator, and subtract the two x values of the points to find a denominator. You can estimate all of these things using a data set and your basic algebra skills.

The slope at a bottom is also zero or undefined. The slope just after a peak might be very negative. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. I could calculate basic arithmetic and algebra. So, I think I need to learn the trigonometry then.

Gerald Edgar Gerald Edgar 5, 1 1 gold badge 15 15 silver badges 25 25 bronze badges. Benjamin Dickman Benjamin Dickman ShadSterling ShadSterling 1 1 silver badge 3 3 bronze badges. Not only is it hard to work on calculus with weak algebra but these are topics that are useful themselves and perhaps even more applications than calculus; for example exponentials and rational functions are common in oil EUR programming on Tableau, Spotfire and Excel A cheap, good text in this area is Frank Ayres Schaum's Outline First Year College Mathematics which covers everything up to Calculus other than Geometry which you don't need for Calculus and even has a little intro to Calculus which might be all you need or at least help you before you make the jump to a calculus text.

Also look at Khan academy. I wish you all the best, happy learning. Calculus usually consists of 3 general topics - differential calc, integration and vector calc? Which one of these do you require for solving your programming problem? Now that your know the theory of derivatives, a large part of the work is finding the answers.

Find derivative equations to predict the rate of change at any point. Using derivatives to find the rate of change at one point is helpful, but the beauty of calculus is that it allows you to create a new model for every function. There is also another popular way of writing derivatives.

Instead of using a prime symbol, you write d d x. Remember real-life examples of derivatives if you are still struggling to understand.

The easiest example is based on speed, which offers a lot of different derivatives that we see every day. Remember, a derivative is a measure of how fast something is changing. Think of a basic experiment. You are rolling a marble on a table, and you measure both how far it moves each time and how fast it moves.

Now imagine that the rolling marble is tracing a line on a graph — you use derivatives to measure the instantaneous changes at any point on that line. How fast does the marble change location? How fast is the marble gaining speed down the hills, and how fast is it losing speed going up hills? How fast is the marble moving exactly halfway up the first hill?

This would be the instantaneous rate of change, or derivative, of that marble at its one specific point. Part 3. Know that you use calculus to find complex areas and volumes. Calculus allows you to measure complex shapes that are normally too difficult. Think, for example, about trying to find out how much water is in a long, oddly shaped lake — it would be impossible to measure each gallon of water separately or use a ruler to measure the shape of the lake.

Calculus allows you to study how the edges of the lake change, and use that information to learn how much water is inside. Integration is the second major branch of calculus. Know that integration finds the area underneath a graph. Integration is used to measure the space underneath any line, which allows you to find the area of odd or irregular shapes.

While this may seem useless, think of the uses in manufacturing — you can make a function that looks like a new part and use integration to find out the area of that part, helping you order the right amount of material. Know that you have to select an area to integrate. You cannot just integrate an entire function. Remember how to find the area of a rectangle.

Know that integration adds up many small rectangles to find area. If you zoom in very close to a curve, it looks flat. This happens every day — you cannot see the curve of the earth because we are so close to its surface. Integration makes an infinite number of little rectangles under a curve that are so small they are basically flat, which allows you to measure them. Add all of these together to get the area under a curve.

Know how to correctly read and write integrals. Integrals come with 4 parts. When it is inside the integral, it is called the integrand. Learn how to find integrals. Integration comes in many forms, and you will need to learn a lot of different formulas to integrate every function.

However, they all follow the principles outlined above: integration sums up an infinite number of things. Integrate by substitution. Calculate indefinite integrals. Integrate by parts.

Know that integration reverses differentiation, and vice versa. This is an ironclad rule of calculus that is so important, it has its own name: the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus. Since integration and differentiation are so closely related, a combination of the two of them can be used to find rate of change, acceleration, speed, location, movement, etc.

For example, remember that the derivative of speed is acceleration, so you can use speed to find acceleration. But if you only know the acceleration of something like objects falling due to gravity , you can integrate it to find the speed! Know that integration can also find the volume of 3D objects. Spinning a flat shape around is a way to create 3D solids.

Imagine spinning a coin on the table in front of you — notice how it appears to form a sphere as it spins. For example, you can make a function that traces the bottom of a lake, and then use that to find the volume of the lake, or how much water it holds. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered.

By using this service, some information may be shared with YouTube. Clear your problems by consulting your teacher. Helpful 2 Not Helpful 0. Practice makes perfect, so do the practice problems in your textbook — even the ones your teacher didn't assign — and check your answers to help you understand the concepts.

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