Business Calculus

Calculus is usually a major change for math students. This is appropriate, because calculus is the
study of change: slope, velocity, growth rate, and other ways that we describe how one quantity
changes with respect to another.
Calculus is also perceived as difficult, and historically for the scientific community it was. It
took about 300 years of concentrated effort to develop calculus as a usable and well-founded
discipline! Fortunately for modern students, we have the benefit of our elders' wisdom. We have
their well-laid-out road map, carefully ordered, to lead us gradually toward a grasp of the subject.
Many people contributed to the development of calculus, including (in chronological order),
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Archimedes (287? - 212 BC)

Newton (1642 - 1727)
Liebniz (1646 - 1716)
Jacob Bernoulli (1654 - 1707)
Euler (1707 - 1783)
Cauchy (1789 - 1857)
Weierstrass (1815 - 1897)
Riemann (1826 - 1866)

There are two main branches: the differential calculus and the integral calculus. Derivatives help
us to compute rates of change, and integrals help us to calculate the accumulated results of that
change. Historically, these two areas developed separately. Thinking in geometric terms, there is
no obvious connection between slope and area. Isaac Newton's great theorem, first proved in
1665, relates the two in an astounding equation. This theorem today is known as the
Fundamental Theorem of Calculus. Without it, the large field of calculus would be several
smaller fields.
Calculus is united by a concept as well as a theorem. The idea of limit was the last major idea to
be added to the discipline, but logically it precedes everything else! This is often the way of
mathematical history. Mathematicians and scientists were happily computing derivatives and
integrals for a couple of centuries before anyone got around to making sure their methods were
founded on a consistent, logical base. In fact, there are many subtleties involved, and the limit
concept makes it all rigorous.
The function concept is also central to calculus: functions relate the various quantities that
change. For example, we can think of the position of a car as a function of time. And the area of
a rectangle is a function of its height and width. It is important to understand what a function is,
and that can be done from at least four different perspectives.
Descriptively, a function is defined by words:

"The distance traveled by a falling object is proportional to the square of the time it has been
falling, with the constant of proportionality equal to half the acceleration of gravity."
Analytically, a function is a rule that relates the variables:
D = ()(32)t2
Numerically, a function is a collection of paired numbers. Thought of in this way, a function is
often represented as a table:
Time Distance
0
0
1
16
2
64
etc.
etc.
Graphically, a function is a geometric picture showing the relation. More precisely, the function
is the set of ordered pairs in the tD-plane:
We sometimes call this four-pronged approach to understanding functions DANG. Calculus
students, presumably overwhelmed by enthusiasm, are often heard to utter this acronym.