WEBVTT

00:00:08.460 --> 00:00:11.690
PROFESSOR: Hi, I'm Gilbert
Strang, and I'm a math

00:00:11.690 --> 00:00:13.710
professor at MIT.

00:00:13.710 --> 00:00:18.745
And I hope these highlights of
calculus will be helpful.

00:00:21.300 --> 00:00:26.290
I started the project this
year, because the linear

00:00:26.290 --> 00:00:32.490
algebra lectures which were in
class have been watched by a

00:00:32.490 --> 00:00:35.130
lot of people on
OpenCourseWare.

00:00:35.130 --> 00:00:42.330
And so I looked at what there
was for calculus.

00:00:42.330 --> 00:00:47.230
And I saw two or three
types of things.

00:00:47.230 --> 00:00:53.885
One was lectures, sort of
very serious, too mathy.

00:00:56.630 --> 00:01:05.720
And another was supported by
foundations, an effort to make

00:01:05.720 --> 00:01:10.410
math look so terrifically
exciting and wonderful and

00:01:10.410 --> 00:01:12.690
connect with everything.

00:01:12.690 --> 00:01:17.150
And yet, I feel a lot of
people are taking math

00:01:17.150 --> 00:01:23.730
courses, calculus, in high
school, in college, and simply

00:01:23.730 --> 00:01:27.470
want a little help to see
what's the main point.

00:01:27.470 --> 00:01:30.850
And maybe that's the idea of
these lectures, is to try to

00:01:30.850 --> 00:01:36.170
tell you the main point without
all the heavy things

00:01:36.170 --> 00:01:40.320
that a giant textbook would
do, and without all the

00:01:40.320 --> 00:01:42.600
practice that you'll get
in class, and doing

00:01:42.600 --> 00:01:44.200
exercises and so on.

00:01:44.200 --> 00:01:48.115
So these are kind of short,
but I hope alive.

00:01:51.900 --> 00:01:57.010
And if they help,
I'm very happy.

00:01:57.010 --> 00:02:03.450
So I guess I'm hoping everybody
might watch this

00:02:03.450 --> 00:02:07.740
who'd like a little help or a
second look at calculus, both

00:02:07.740 --> 00:02:11.500
high school and college
students.

00:02:11.500 --> 00:02:18.040
I wanted to capture key ideas
that you could use for review

00:02:18.040 --> 00:02:21.310
and see new examples
and see just coming

00:02:21.310 --> 00:02:23.630
from a second person.

00:02:23.630 --> 00:02:27.550
That seems to be what succeeds
with linear algebra.

00:02:27.550 --> 00:02:33.860
The videos are sort of just to
add, to supplement what you're

00:02:33.860 --> 00:02:38.060
actually seeing in class
and in the textbook.

00:02:38.060 --> 00:02:41.500
I think of the textbooks as
often so large and so many

00:02:41.500 --> 00:02:48.960
exercises that it's totally easy
to lose the key point,

00:02:48.960 --> 00:02:52.400
what's essential about calculus
and what is just kind

00:02:52.400 --> 00:02:58.330
of routine and practice.

00:02:58.330 --> 00:03:02.400
So in short videos, it has to
be the essential points, the

00:03:02.400 --> 00:03:08.290
three groups of functions, like
powers of x, sine and

00:03:08.290 --> 00:03:12.650
cosine of x, and e to the x.

00:03:12.650 --> 00:03:17.080
If you understand those, you've
got the main ideas.

00:03:17.080 --> 00:03:21.940
We're starting out with a first
group of five videos.

00:03:21.940 --> 00:03:28.300
Maybe big picture is the words
that we think of for those.

00:03:28.300 --> 00:03:32.190
And then that'll be the first
group that'll be on

00:03:32.190 --> 00:03:33.660
OpenCourseWare.

00:03:33.660 --> 00:03:41.580
And then I've done 12 after
that, that do sort of the rest

00:03:41.580 --> 00:03:47.370
of differential calculus, big
words just meaning how to find

00:03:47.370 --> 00:03:51.300
the derivative, the
slope, the speed.

00:03:51.300 --> 00:03:53.380
You'll see in the videos.

00:03:53.380 --> 00:03:57.970
And then after that could come
integral calculus, if you

00:03:57.970 --> 00:04:00.100
think I should.

00:04:00.100 --> 00:04:01.240
I don't think of a lot of

00:04:01.240 --> 00:04:03.770
prerequisites for these videos.

00:04:03.770 --> 00:04:09.160
I guess I'm always hopeful that
you could watch them even

00:04:09.160 --> 00:04:15.100
if you haven't started calculus,
to see what's

00:04:15.100 --> 00:04:16.350
coming, what it's about.

00:04:20.260 --> 00:04:24.400
I've taught math for a long
time, and it's so easy to get

00:04:24.400 --> 00:04:32.050
into the course and jump over
the opening, the introduction

00:04:32.050 --> 00:04:34.890
that tells what's
important here.

00:04:34.890 --> 00:04:39.270
And that's maybe what these
videos are aimed at.

00:04:39.270 --> 00:04:41.060
FEMALE SPEAKER: This has been
a production of MIT

00:04:41.060 --> 00:04:43.440
OpenCourseWare and
Gilbert Strang.

00:04:43.440 --> 00:04:45.730
Funding for this video was
provided by the Lord

00:04:45.730 --> 00:04:46.950
Foundation.

00:04:46.950 --> 00:04:50.070
To help OCW continue to provide
free and open access

00:04:50.070 --> 00:04:53.160
to MIT courses, please
make a donation at

00:04:53.160 --> 00:04:54.720
ocw.mit.edu/donate.