calculus in everyday life - …（微积分在日常生活中,u2026）.pdfVIP

CALCULUS IN EVERYDAY LIFE PART 2 DIFFERENTIAL CALCULUS OR WHY UNDERSTANDING RATES IS SO IMPORTANT (AN ARITHMETIC APPROACH) 1. What Is Differential Calculus ? The word “calculus” is a Latin word that means “stone”. The Western Worlds forerunner of the abacus was a system of vertical lines that denoted the various place value denominations; and stones were used as markers to indicate the number of each denomination. Thus, the verb “to calculate” originally meant to do arithmetic by using stones. In this sense, then, all of computational mathematics could have been called calculus. So perhaps the best place to begin our discussion is with the question: What do we “calculate” in differential calculus that we do not “calculate” in other computational mathematics courses? As a start we will say that differential calculus may be viewed as the study of instantaneous rate of change. However because the topic of rates has already been discussed in the elementary school mathematics curriculum (usually when fractions are taught), the study of differential calculus begins when we try to define what “instantaneous” means. • By way of review, a rate of change (or, more simply, a rate) is usually expressed in the form of two nouns separated by the word “per”. We deal with rates when we want to answer the question “how fast?” rather than “how much?” • For example, speed is a rate. It is the rate of change of the distance traveled with respect to the time it took to travel this distance; and is expressed in such units as “miles per hour”, “feet per second”, “meters per minute”, etc. • The point is that by themselves neither the distance nor the time it took to travel the distance tell us ho