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About
this Unit The Idea of a Limit The idea of a limit is the fundamental distinction between calculus and all the mathematics that is typically labelled ``precalculus''. Whether we're dealing with the slope of a curve, the area of a region in the plane, or the speed of a moving object, the fundamental idea will always be the same; we want to find what the value of some function f(x) ought to be at a specific point a, based on its value at all nearby points. The precise formulation of that idea is the biggest challenge of this chapter. That concept will then be applied in the chapters to come to develop all of the standard concepts of calculus. Copyright 2000 David L. Johnson
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