This is calculus, in a single variable.

I'm Robert Ghrist, professor of

mathematics and electrical and systems
engineering at The University of
Pennsylvania.
We're about to begin the course.
Welcome to Calculus. I'm Professor
Ghrist,
and for the next thirteen weeks, I'll be
your calculus professor.
Calculus is a wonderful subject.
You're about to dive in to one of the
loftiest achievements of human thought,
with thousands of years in the making.
Whether you're coming at this subject for
the first time, or whether you're coming
back to learn from a novel perspective,
my course will give you an entertaining
and unified overview of this subject.
My class is organized around the central
objects of calculus,
Functions, limits, derivatives, and
integrals, both continuous and discrete.
You'll learn how to compute these things,
but you'll also learn what they mean,
and how they're useful in the
engineering, physical, biological and
social sciences.
Are you ready?
Let's go.
Let's begin with an overview of the
course.
The course is divided into five chapters.
In the first chapter, we'll consider
functions beginning with the
reconsideration of the exponential
function, a to the x.
We will develop some new perspectives and
tools in the form of series and tailor
expansions.
Chapter two is where we'll set the course
in motion, by taking these new
perspectives and reconsidering the notion
of derivatives and differentiation.
In chapter three we undo differentiation
and develop the indefinite and then the
definite integral.
Motivated by problems in differential
equations we'll develop techniques of
integration.
In chapter four, we'll take everything
that we've learned thus far and put it to
use.
In classical applications, involving
areas and volumes.
And in more modern applications.
Drawing from probability, statistics,
physics and more.
In chapter five, we'll reflect on the

calculus that we have developed, and

redevelop it for functions with a
discreet, or digital, input.
Such sequences will have a calculus all
of their own,
including limits, derivatives,
differential equations, and integrals.
You may be asking yourself, what am I
going to need for this course?
Well, there are several things that you
are not going to need.
You're not going to have to spend any
money.
You're not going to buy a book.
And you're not going to need a graphing
calculator or any fancy equipment, other
than the computer you're using to viewing
these videos.
There are, however, some things that you
will need. you're going to have to think.
Calculus is not an easy subject and this
course will emphasize the conceptual over
the computational.
You're also going to need time.
There is no way to learn difficult
material quickly without time and hard
work.
There are also a few other things that
you're going to need in preparation for
this course.
Among the prerequisites are, well, some
basic algebra.
The things that, hopefully, you've seen
and hopefully, recently.
There will be times when we skip some
steps in the computations that we'll do
in class, and you're going to have to
fill those in on your own.
There are other prerequisites as well.
It would be a good idea, to review some
of your basic geometry.
Some, standard formulas for areas,
volumes, dealing with triangles and the
like.
This shows up in basic trigonometry as
well.
Where, we're going to make free use of
the sines, cosines, tangents and the
relationships between them, and the
angles.
In this course, it's going to be assumed
that you've seen pre-calculus and even
some basic calculus already.
You should be familiar with exponentials,
natural logarithms.
If not, you should take a moment to
review that.
Lastly, this is not the course for you to
see calculus for the first time.
It's going to be assumed that you're at

least computed a couple of derivatives,

and integrals in your life.
Even if you didn't remember all the
technicalities involved with it.
We're going to assume that you've seen a
definition of a derivative.
Maybe in terms of a slope of a tangent
line.
And you've got some sort of idea of the
relationship between an integral and area
under the curve.
Now we're going to enrich those
perspectives greatly.
But it will be assumed that you've at
least seen this somewhere before.
Now, as far as how the course is
structured, what you should do.
You should begin by taking the diagnostic
exam associated with the beginning of the
course that will tell you whether you are
up on your prerequisite and ready to go.
If the diagnostic exam doesn't go so
well, take a little bit of time, review.
Once you have got things under control,
then begin with lecture one, and watch
it.
Now, not every lecture is going to make
perfect sense the first time you see it.
That's one of the wonderful things about
video.
You can go back, and re-watch the
lecture.
You can pause, take a break, and think
about it.
Work out some computational steps that we
skipped.
After you feel comfortable with what you
have seen in a lecture, do some homework.
Each lecture will has some homework
problems associated with it.
If the homework goes well, great,
then you can move on.
If it doesn't, well you might want to do
try a few more problems or you might want
to try going to the forums to ask for
help.
If you feel really comfortable with what
you have done in the homework then go to
the forums, try to help someone else.
Eventually, when you've got the homework
down, go back and watch the next lecture.
repeat, do some homework, until you get
to the end of a chapter, at which point,
you'll want to take a quiz.
After all five chapters are done,
there'll be a final exam for the course.
At which point, you can relax and say,
hooray, I'm done.
This course and indeed the subject of
calculus is not easy.

There are going to be times when you

might feel like giving up.
Don't. Work at it, a little bit everyday.
I'll work as hard as I can to make this
material inviting, colorful, appealing.
You're going to have to work hard with
me.
I'm delighted you've chosen to take this
course, and I'm privileged to be your
calculus professor this term.
Your next step should be to take the
diagnostic exam, and see if there's
anything you need to review.
Then, beginning with lecture one,
continue incrementally.
Don't skip around.
Calculus is a story, like an epic story
with grand characters, lofty themes,
struggle and eventual victory.
I want you to see that story and I want
you to live that story from beginning to
end.
This course is going to be long and at
times difficult, but if you remain
resolute and work at it day by day, in
the end you'll have an achievement worth
being proud of,
a mastery of calculus.