What is Calculus?

What is calculus? The definition of calculus

Calculus is the branch of math that involves derivatives and integrals. Sometimes, calculus is divided into differential calculus and integral calculus. Interestingly, derivatives are easier to understand and calculate than integrals, making differential calculus a more popular subject in most schools than integral calculus. Integral calculus problems can be difficult and we will spend sometime with integral calculus help. Calculus has many applications in the real world making learning calculus very useful.

Why should we study calculus?

Calculus is about studying how things change. Calculus is particularly useful in physics. Measuring speed, for example, is an application of calculus.

What is Differential calculus?

Differential calculus is the branch of calculus that deals with derivatives rather than integrals. Differential calculus and the derivatives help us understand and measure changes. An example of an application of differential calculus and the derivatives is the velocity which measures how fast things travel in a particular direction and the acceleration. 

What is integral calculus?

Integral calculus is the branch of calculus that deals with integrals and integration. Integral calculus is the study of how things accumulate. Integral calculus is the study of accumulation of quantities such as areas and volume.

The relationship between Differential calculus and Integral calculus

Differential calculus and integral calculus are inversely related to each other. Derivatives are inversely related to integrals as you will see in our Integral Calculus, Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, and Differential Calculus sections of our Free Calculus Help website.

• History of Calculus