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2Preliminary calculus
This chapter is concerned with the formalism of probably the most widely used
mathematical technique in the physical sciences, namely the calculus. The chapter
divides into two sections. The rst deals with the process of dierentiation and the
second with its inverse process, integration. The material covered is essential for
the remainder of the book and serves as a reference. Readers who have previously
studied these topics should ensure familiarity by looking at the worked examples
in the main text and by attempting the exercises at the end of the chapter.
2.1 Dierentiation
Dierentiation is the process of determining how quickly or slowly a function
varies, as the quantity on which it depends, its argument, is changed. More
specically it is the procedure for obtaining an expression (numerical or algebraic)
for the rate of change of the function with respect to its argument. Familiar
examples of rates of change include acceleration (the rate of change of velocity)
and chemical reaction rate (the rate of change of chemical composition). Both
acceleration and reaction rate give a measure of the change of a quantity with
respect to time. However, dierentiation may also be applied to changes with
respect to other quantities, for example the change in pressure with respect to a
change in temperature.
Although it will not be apparent from what we have said so far, dierentiation
is in fact a limiting process, that is, it deals only with the innitesimal change in
one quantity resulting from an innitesimal change in another.
2.1.1 Dierentiation from rst principles
Let us consider a function f(x) that depends on only one variable x, together with
numerical constants, for example, f(x) = 3x2 or f(x) = sin x or f(x) = 2 + 3/x.
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