Calculus
Investigate the central ideas of calculus and learn how to put them to use.
The Rate Of Change
Practice The Rate Of Change
Tangents
Practice Tangents
Maxima And Minima
Practice Maxima And Minima
Critical Points
Practice Critical Points
Apply: Drop Testing
Identifying Extremes
Practice Identifying Extremes
Test Limitations
Practice Test Limitations
Higher-Order Derivatives
Practice Higher-Order Derivatives
Apply: From Distance To Jerk
Constant Multiples
Practice Constant Multiples
Sums
Practice Sums
Products and Powers
Practice Products and Powers
Chain Rule
Practice Chain Rule
Quotients
Practice Quotients
Apply: Optimization
The Area Problem
Practice The Area Problem
The Integral
Practice The Integral
The Fundamental Theorem
Practice The Fundamental Theorem
Antiderivatives
Practice Antiderivatives
Apply: Falling objects
Volume With Integrals
Surface Area via Integrals
Apply: Gabriel's Horn
Sequences and Limits
Practice Sequences and Limits
Apply: Carbon Dating
Practice Apply: Carbon Dating
What is an Infinite Sum?
Practice What is an Infinite Sum?
Geometric Sums
Practice Geometric Sums
Harmonic Sum
Practice Harmonic Sum
Apply: The Tower of Lire
Quadratic Approximations
Practice Quadratic Approximations
Apply: The Spring Equation
Function Limits
Practice Function Limits
Limit Theorems
Practice Limit Theorems
Continuity
Practice Continuity
Smooth Functions
Practice Smooth Functions
Intermediate Value Theorem
Practice Intermediate Value Theorem
Extreme Value Theorem
Practice Extreme Value Theorem
Sine and Cosine
Practice Sine and Cosine
The Exponential Function
Practice The Exponential Function
Taylor Series
Practice Taylor Series
Geometric Series Revisited
Practice Geometric Series Revisited
Apply: Normal Curves
Course description
Calculus has such a wide scope and depth of application that it's easy to lose sight of the forest for the trees. This course takes a bird's-eye view, using visual and physical intuition to present the major pillars of calculus: limits, derivatives, integrals, and infinite sums. You'll walk away with a clear sense of what calculus is and what it can do. Calculus in a Nutshell is a short course with only 19 quizzes. If you want to quickly learn an overview of calculus or review the foundational principles after a long hiatus from the subject, this course ought to be perfect. Calculus Fundamentals and Integral Calculus are the two courses that can follow next in the Calculus sequence. If/when you want to go into more depth and learn a wide spread of specific techniques in differential calculus and integral calculus respectively, that's where you should look. For example, integration techniques like "integration by parts" are only in the Integral Calculus course.
Topics covered
- Antiderivatives
- Derivatives
- Derivative rules
- The Fundamental Theorem
- Geometric applications
- Geometric series
- Infinite sums
- Integrals
- Limits
- Riemann sums
- Science applications
- Tangent lines
- Taylor series
Prerequisites and next steps
You’ll need an understanding of algebra and the basics of functions, such as domain and range, graphs, and intercepts.
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