Lesson 4: Introduction to The Calculus

Calculus deals with the infinite and the infinitisemal, and finding ways to deal with their non-finite extent in a finite way. At the heart of this adventure into infinity, and the of the great value of The Calculus, is the notion of a limit.

Traditionally, the great value of limits is emphasized in the context of two very graphical interpretations - finding the tangent to and area under a curve that isn't a line. Both of these examples are motivated by important physical correlates, such as finding the speed of a moving object, the rate of change of a variable of interest, such as population of a species, value of a stock, or price of gas or oil.