A Calculus Retrospective

What IS Calculus, anyway?

What are the main questions that calculus tries to answer and what strategies are used to try to answer those questions?

Many people I speak with who have taken calculus remember vaguely some of the techniques they learned but say they never really understood what calculus was all about. The videos in this section are aimed at these people. We focus on the big ideas behind calculus so that you can see the reasons why things work the way they do. The first few videos in this series are appropriate even for people who’ve never had calculus. Subsequent ones require you to remember just a few basic things that you learned when you took calculus.

The area of a circle and the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus

• Part I – The derivative of the area of a circle is the circumference
• Part II – The “formula” for the circumference is no such thing
• Part III – Area of a circle and the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus
• Part IV – Spheres, squares, cubes and blobs