Dans' Mathematica

1 - The Big Picture Calculus is about change. One function tells how quickly another function is changing. Professor Strang shows how calculus applies to ordinary life situations, such as: • driving a car • climbing a mountain • growing to full adult height 2 - Derivatives Calculus finds the relationship between the distance traveled and the speed — easy for constant speed, not so easy for changing speed. Professor Strang is finding the "rate of change" and the "slope of a curve" and the "derivative of a function 3 - Max & Min & The 2nd Derivative At the top and bottom of a curve (Max and Min), the slope is zero. The "second derivative" shows whether the curve is bending down or up. Here is a real-world example of a minimum problem: What route from home to work takes the shortest time? 4 - The Exponential Function Professor Strang explains how the "magic number e" connects to ordinary things like the interest on a ...

The graph of the logarithm to base 2 crosses the x axis (horizontal axis) at 1 and passes through the points with coordinates (2, 1), (4, 2), and (8, 3). For example, log2(8) = 3, because 2^3 = 8. The graph gets arbitrarily close to the y axis, but does not meet or intersect it. The logarithm of a number is the exponent by which another fixed value, the base, has to be raised to produce that number. For example, the logarithm of 1000 to base 10 is 3, because 1000 is 10 to the power 3: 1000 = 10^3 = 10 × 10 × 10. More generally, if x = by, then y is the logarithm of x to base b, and is written logb(x), so log10(1000) = 3. Logarithms were introduced by John Napier in the early 17th century as a means to simplify calculations. They were rapidly adopted by scientists, engineers, and others to perform computations more easily and rapidly, using slide rules and logarithm tables. These devices rely on the fact—important in its own right—that the logarithm of a product is the sum of the lo...