Math 7902 Lecture 01

Introduction to Calculus
1) Simply put calculus is the mathematics of change.
a) In science and engineering you often want to know the relationship between one physical quantity
and another.
b) You use calculus when you want to know how one physical quantity changes as another changes.
c) Calculus was invented to understand the relationship found in the physical world so we will focus on
a physical perspective.
2) Displacement is defined as the change in position of an object.
a) Example 1.1: You walk 70 m due East then 30 m due West. What is your total walking distance?
What is your displacement?

b) In lecture the delta symbol, , will mean “change in”, and so x means “change in x”. The “change
in” any quantity means “final minus initial”.
3) Average velocity
a) Average speed of an object is defined as the total distance traveled along its path divided by the time
it takes to travel this distance.
distance traveled
average speed 
time elapsed
b) Speed is just a magnitude while velocity has a magnitude and a direction.
c) Speed is a scalar quantity and velocity is a vector quantity.
d) Average velocity is defined in terms of the displacement:
displacement
average velocity  v  
elapsed time
e) Note that the bar is standard notation for “average”.
f) Example 1.2: If the walk in example 1.1 took 70 s what is the average speed and average velocity.

4) Instantaneous Velocity.
a) Example 1.3: Given the following displacement vs time graph displacement
what is the average velocity?
x1 = 14 m

b) Example 1.4: What is the instantaneous velocity of at t '  3 s ? time

(0,0)
t1 = 7 s

c) Example 1.5: What is the instantaneous velocity at

displacement P1 in the following graph?
 Observe that this is a difficult question now that the graph
is curving!
x x2  x1
 Observe that v   is an estimate but not a
t t2  t1
very good one.

Lecture 01 Page 1 of 3
 d) Observe that we can get a better estimate of the instantaneous
velocity at P1 if we reduce the size of t.
e) Observe that the exact instantaneous velocity at P1 is just the
tangent line at P1 which is obtained when we reduce the size
of t to zero.
f) Observe that you have been taught your entire life that when
you divide by zero bad things happen!
g) Instead of dividing by zero we are going to introduce the idea
of a limit. You ask the question: “what are we trending
towards as we let t get closer and closer to zero” and then
you predict the result in the limiting case when t is actually
zero.
h) In your calculus class you will learn how to take limits. You will do enough of them that you will be
able to predict the outcomes and see the patterns so that you can generalize the results.
i) We skip the limit process and jump right to the generalizations.
j) Our definition of instantaneous velocity is:

v

dx
k) means:
dt




5) The derivative of a polynomial function
a) displacement at a function of time can be described by many different functions but for the simple
physical situations we will look at, a polynomial function is usually enough
dx
b) If x  f  t   Ct n where C is any constant then 
dt
dx
c) Note: If n = 0 then x  C then 
dt
dx
d) Rule: if x  f  t   g  t  then 
dt
e) Example 1.6: Given x  7  3t  8t 2 find the instantaneous velocity.

f) Example 1.7: The velocity in the above example is a function of time. What does this mean?
It means the velocity will be different for different times, which means it is changing, which means it is
accelerating.
6) Acceleration
change in velocity v
a) average acceleration  a  
elapsed time t
b) The definition of instantaneous acceleration is:
v
a  lim 
t  0 t

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 dx dv
c) Since v  , a 
dt dt
d) This is the second derivative of x with respect to t.
e) Example 1.8: Given x  3  5t  4t 2 find the instantaneous velocity and acceleration.

Lecture 01 Page 3 of 3
 Math 7902 Lecture 02

The Derivative
1) Algebra tells you that if y  mx  b then the slope of a y vs x graph is just m. (memorized)
2) Calculus tells you that if y  mx  b then the slope of a y vs x graph is:
dy

dx


d
3) Example 2.1 Why is b  0
dx
a) Algebra says look at the line y  b . What is its slope?
b) Calculus says use the rule:
d
dx
 Cx n   Cnx n 1 y  b  bx 0 
dy
dx

d
4) Example 2.2 Why is  x  1?
dx
a) Algebra says look a the line y  x .
b) Calculus says use the rule:
d
dx
 Cx n   Cnx n 1 . y  x  x1 
dy
dx

5) It may look like Calculus uses a lot of words to say very little. It is a lot easier to just memorize that if
y  mx  b then the slope of a y vs x graph is just m but...
6) Example 2.3 What is the slope of the line y  x 2 ?
a) Algebra has nothing to say
b) Calculus says use the rule:
d
dx
 Cx n   Cnx n 1 . y  x 2 
dy
dx


It does not matter which variable we are using, focus on the relationships:  Ct n   C  t n   Cnt n 1
d d
7)
dt dt
8) Example 2.4: Fill in the following table
f  t 3t t2 Ct 2 t3 7t 3 9t  2t 3
df

dt
1 dv
9) Example 2.5: If the displacement of a moving object is given by x  x0  v0t  at 2 show that a.
2 dt

Lecture 02 Page 1 of 5
Limits
1) Limits answer the question: “What will happen to my function, f(x) as x moves toward a certain value?”
1
2) Example 2.6: If f  x   what happens to the functions as x approaches zero, or more concisely, find
x
1
lim .
x 0 x

a) make a table of data and graph it.

x f(x) = 1/x
5 0.2
2 0.5
1 1
0.5 2
0.2 5

b) We looked at the limit as x approaches zero from the positive side. What happens when we approach
1
zero from the negative side? Find lim
x 0  x

x f(x) = 1/x
‐5 ‐0.2
‐2 ‐0.5
‐1 ‐1
‐0.5 ‐2
‐0.2 ‐5

1
c) We say that lim does not exist.
x 0 x

3) When does lim f  x  exist? If lim f  x  and lim f  x  both exist and they equal each other then
x  x0 x  x0 x  x0

lim f  x  exists.
x  x0

4) In example 2.6 the limits exist as you approach them from both sides but they are not equal so we say the
limit does not exist.
1
5) Example 2.7: If f  x   find lim f ( x) .
x x 

Lecture 02 Page 2 of 5
 1
6) Example 2.8: If f  x   find lim f ( x)
x2 x 0

x f(x) = 1/x^2
5 0.04
2 0.25
1 1
0.5 4
0.2 25
‐5 0.04
‐2 0.25
‐1 1
‐0.5 4
‐0.2 25

1
7) Example 2.9: Find lim .
x  x 2

1
8) We can generalize and say that lim 
x  x n

4x  6
9) Example 2.10: Find lim
x  8x  1

Limits and the Derivative

1) Example: How do you find the slope
of the secant line between the points
(x0, y0) and (x1, y1) on the following
(x1, y1)
graph?
Secant
y
m  Line
x y
2) In general the dependent variable y will
(x0, y0)
be some function of x, y = f(x).
3) Our slope can be written as:
y x
m 
x
4) Also observe that since x  x1  x0 we can write x1  x0  x so that our slope becomes:
y
m 
x

Lecture 02 Page 3 of 5
5) We all know that you are not supposed to
divide by zero but that happens to the slope of
the secant line in the limit that x  0 ?
The slope of the secant line becomes the slope of
(x1, y1)
a at (x0, y0):

m
Tangent
6) Recall that there is a relationship between (x0, y0) Line
slopes and derivatives.
7) Definition: Given y = f(x) the derivative of
the function f with respect to the variable x is
df
f  x 
dx
8) Notation: Given y = f(x) then
9) Example: If f(x) = x use the definition of the derivative to show that f '  x   1
f  x  x   f  x 
f   x   lim
x  0 x


dy
10) Example: If y= x2 use the definition of the derivative to show that  2x
dx
dy f  x  x   f  x 
 lim
dx x  0 x


dy
11) Example: If y= C, where C is a constant, use the definition of the derivative to show that 0
dx
dy f  x  x   f  x 
 lim
dx x 0 x


12) Example: If f(x) = Cg(x), where C is a constant, use the definition of the derivative to show that
f '  x   Cg '  x 
f  x  x   f  x 
f '  x   lim
x 0 x


Lecture 02 Page 4 of 5
 df
13) Example: If f(x) = x3 use the definition of the derivative to show that  3x 2
dx
df f  x  x   f  x 
 lim
dx x0 x


14) Example: Complete the following:

y  x1 y  x2 y  x3 y  x4 y  xn
dy dy dy dy dy
 1x 0  2 x1  3x 2  4 x3 
dx dx dx dx dx

dy dy
15) If y  Cx n what is ? 
dx dx

Rules for the Derivative

1)
d
dx
C  
d n
dx
x   d
dx
 Cf  x   
2)
d
dx
 f  x   g  x  
3)
d
dx
 f  x  g  x  
d  f  x 
4)  
dx  g  x  
5) Example: Given f  x   4 x calculate f '  x 
f ' x 

6) Example: Given f  x    2 x3  x   x  3 calculate f '  x 

f ' x 

x2  4x  4
7) Example: Given f  x   calculate f '  x 
x2
f ' x 

Lecture 02 Page 5 of 5