From Calculus To Computers

Classroom resource material allowing the integration of mathematics history into undergraduate mathematics teaching.

This is a new type of calculus book: Students who master this text will be well versed in calculus and, in addition, possess a useful working knowledge of one of the most important mathematical software systems, namely, MACSYMA. This will equip them with the mathematical competence they need for science and engi neering and the competitive workplace. The choice of MACSYMA is not essential for the didactic goal of the book. In fact, any of the other major mathematical software systems, e. g. , AXIOM, MATHEMATICA, MAPLE, DERIVE, or REDUCE, could have been taken for the examples and for acquiring the skill in using these systems for doing mathematics on computers. The symbolic and numerical calcu lations described in this book will be easily performed in any of these systems by slight modification of the syntax as soon as the student understands and masters the MACSYMA examples in this book. What is important, however, is that the student gets all the information necessary to design and execute the calculations in at least one concrete implementation language as this is done in this book and also that the use of the mathematical software system is completely integrated with the text. In these times of globalization, firms which are unable to hire adequately trained technology experts will not prosper. For corporations which depend heavily on sci ence and engineering, remaining competitive in the global economy will require hiring employees having had a traditionally rigorous mathematical education.

Students studying different branches of computer graphics have to be familiar with geometry, matrices, vectors, rotation transforms, quaternions, curves and surfaces and as computer graphics software becomes increasingly sophisticated, calculus is also being used to resolve its associated problems. In this 2nd edition, the author extends the scope of the original book to include applications of calculus in the areas of arc-length parameterisation of curves, geometric continuity, tangent and normal vectors, and curvature. The author draws upon his experience in teaching mathematics to undergraduates to make calculus appear no more challenging than any other branch of mathematics. He introduces the subject by examining how functions depend upon their independent variables, and then derives the appropriate mathematical underpinning and definitions. This gives rise to a function’s derivative and its antiderivative, or integral. Using the idea of limits, the reader is introduced to derivatives and integrals of many common functions. Other chapters address higher-order derivatives, partial derivatives, Jacobians, vector-based functions, single, double and triple integrals, with numerous worked examples, and over a hundred and seventy colour illustrations. This book complements the author’s other books on mathematics for computer graphics, and assumes that the reader is familiar with everyday algebra, trigonometry, vectors and determinants. After studying this book, the reader should understand calculus and its application within the world of computer graphics, games and animation.