Calculus

Calculus is used in certain MBA disciplines such as economics, finance, and management.  Most economic applications focus on building models that allow decision makers to maximize profits or to minimize production costs. In the area of Operations Management, linear programming and other Max/Min approaches are used to schedule transportation plans or optimal production runs.  For example, FedEx and UPS will use these methods to minimize costs associated with covering their pick-up and delivery locations.

In the area of financial mathematics, stochastic calculus is used to derive models that price derivative  securities such as options and futures contracts within continuous time frameworks.

Go to:    http://library.thinkquest.org/C006002/ (The ThinkQuest Portal) and enter the “Realizing Calculus” website take a look around.  This is the site containing content for this subject.  There are some minor English language problems in the site and the website design is very basic but just keep in mind that the site was designed by high School students in Egypt.

At the top of the page go to “Preliminaries” and you will find links to 4 topics:

• Algebra
• Functions
• Analytic Geometry
• Useful Relations

             (Source: http://library.thinkquest.org/)

Each topic has its own page.  Visit each page and master the concepts that are presented there.  When you are finished with each page it will be easier to use the “Back” button to get back to the “Preliminaries” page with the listing of topics.

When you fully understand these topics, take the “Limits” link on the top of the page.  You will find links to the topics listed below.  Concentrate on the topics in bold print.

• Intuitive Introduction
• Definition
• Rules of Limits
• One-sided Limits
• Continuity
• Limits at Infinity
• Proofs - More Theorems
• Problems on Limits and Continuity

             (Source: http://library.thinkquest.org/)

When you fully understand these topics, take the “Derivative” link on the top of the page.  You will find links to the topics listed below.  Concentrate on the topics in bold print.

• Introduction - Increments
• The derivative
• Rules for differentiation (ignore the rules for TRIG functions using “sin” and “cos”)
• Right and left derivatives
• Higher derivatives (again ignore the TRIG function example)
• Implicit differentiation
• Proofs
• Problems on Derivatives (do problems 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,12)

             (Source: http://library.thinkquest.org/)

Continue on to the next Calculus Page.