Limits

Most of the applications of calculus deal with continuous functions, but the visualization
of processes often starts with finite changes in the variables of interest. One power of
calculus is that it can deal with changes which are infinitesmally small. For example, an
average velocity is obtained by taking a distance traveled and dividing by the finite time
interval it took to travel that distance. But suppose you wanted the instantaneous velocity
at a given instant of time. You can approach that with a "limit", i.e., you can take the
smaller distances traveled in shorter intervals and divide by those shorter times. If this
process is allowed to continue until the time interval approaches zero, then this is called
"taking the limit as the time interval approaches zero". This is the way a derivative of
distance with respect to time is defined and the way that an instantaneous velocity is
calculated using calculus methods. Limits are also used in the formation of integrals, or
anti-derivatives.

Differential Form
As a precursor to carrying out calculus operations such as derivatives and integrals, a
mathematical expression will have to be placed in the differential form for the application
of the methods of continuous variables. For example, a finite difference expression
occurs in the development of the relationship for radioactive decay:
It is standard practice to use the Greek letter to represent a finite difference. Often the
finite difference relationship is only approximately true and is exactly true only in the
limit where the differences become infinitesmally small. In this limit, the time interval
t becomes vanishingly small and as a result, the number of decays N also becomes
vanishingly small. The is replaced by the differential symbol d and the resulting form

is said to be the differential form of the expression.

The Derivative

The Partial Derivative

The ordinary derivative of a function of one variable can be carried out because
everything else in the function is a constant and does not affect the process of
differentiation. When there is more than one variable in a function it is often useful to
examine the variation of the function with respect to one of the variables with all the
other variables constrained to stay constant. This is the purpose of a partial derivative.
The derivative is carried out in the same way as ordinary differentiation with this
constraint. For example, given the polynomial in variables x and y,

the partial derivative with respect to x is written

and the partial derivative with respect to y is written

Time Derivatives
Time derivatives are the standard way of representing instantaneous velocities and
accelerations.

One example of the use of the derivative is in obtaining the velocity and acceleration
from a position equation.

Derivatives of Polynomials
Many functions in physical problems have the form of polynomials. The derivative of a
polynomial is the sum of the derivatives of its terms, and for a general term of a
polynomial such as
the derivative is given by

One of the common applications of this is in the time derivatives leading to the constant
acceleration motion equations.

Derivatives and Integrals

Foundational working tools in calculus, the derivative and integral permeate all aspects of
modeling nature in the physical sciences.

The derivative of a function can be geometrically interpreted as the slope of the curve of
the mathematical function f(x) plotted as a function of x. But its implications for the
modeling of nature go far deeper than this simple geometric application might imply.
After all, you can see yourself drawing finite triangles to discover slope, so why is the
derivative so important? Its importance lies in the fact that many physical entities such as
velocity, acceleration, force and so on are defined as instantaneous rates of change of
some other quantity. The derivative can give you a precise intantaneous value for that
rate of change and lead to precise modeling of the desired quantity.
The integral of a function can be geometrically interpreted as the area under the curve of
the mathematical function f(x) plotted as a function of x. You can see yourself drawing a
large number of blocks to appproximate the area under a complex curve, getting a better
answer if you use more blocks. The integral gives you a mathematical way of drawing an
infinite number of blocks and getting a precise analytical expression for the area. That's
very important for geometry - and profoundly important for the physical sciences where
the definitions of many physical entities can be cast in a mathematical form like the area
under a curve. The area of a little block under the curve can be thought of as the width of
the strip weighted by (i.e., multiplied by) the height of the strip. Many properties of
continuous bodies depend upon weighted sums, which to be exact must be infinite
weighted sums - a problem tailor-made for the integral. For example, finding the center
of mass of a continuous body involves weighting each element of mass by its distance
from an axis of rotation, a process for which the integral is necessary if you are going to
get a precise value. A vast number of physical problems involve such infinite sums in
their solutions, making the integral an essential tool for the physical scientist.

Area Under a Curve

Formulating the area under a curve is the first step toward developing the concept of the
integral. The area under the curve formed by plotting function f(x) as a function of x can
be approximated by drawing rectangles of finite width and height f equal to the value of
the function at the center of the interval.

If the width of the rectangles is made smaller, then the number N is larger and the
approximation of the area is better.
 Integral as Limit of Area
The approximation to the area under a curve can be made better by making the
approximating rectangles narrower. The idea of the integral is to increase the number of
rectangles N toward infinity by taking the limit as the rectangle width approaches zero.

While the concept of geometrical area is a convenient way to visualize an integral, the
idea of integration is much more general than that. Any continuous physical variable can
be "chopped up" into infinitesmal increments (differential elements) so that the sum of
the product of that "width" and some function approaches an infinite sum. The integral is
a powerful tool for modeling physical problems which involve continuously varying
quantities.

Area Integral Examples

Area examples with simple geometry can reinforce the idea of the integral as the area
under a curve. For a function which is just a constant a, then the area formed by the
function is just a rectangle.
 The general conclusion here is that the integral of a constant is
just that constant times the variable of integration x.

For a function f(x) = ax, the area is a triangle

The progression is to the general form for the integral of a

polynomial in x:

Area Integral Approximations

The area under any continuous curve can be approximated by drawing a number of
rectangles. The integral is the limit for an infinite number of rectangles.
 Area Integral Example
Integrals are useful for finding the area under curves which can be approximated by
geometrical methods.

This is a polynomial type integral which can be found as the

sum of the integrals of its parts.

Acceleration
Acceleration is defined as the rate of change of velocity. Acceleration is inherently a
vector quantity, and an object will have non-zero acceleration if its speed and/or direction
is changing. The average acceleration is given by

where the small arrows indicate the vector quantities. The operation of subtracting the
initial from the final velocity must be done by vector addition since they are inherently
vectors.

The units for acceleration can be implied from the definition to be meters/second divided
by seconds, usually written m/s2.
The instantaneous acceleration at any time may be obtained by taking the limit of the
average acceleration as the time interval approaches zero. This is the derivative of the
velocity with respect to time:

Center of Mass
The terms "center of mass" and "center of gravity" are used synonymously in a uniform
gravity field to represent the unique point in an object or system which can be used to
describe the system's response to external forces and torques. The concept of the center of
mass is that of an average of the masses factored by their distances from a reference
point. In one plane, that is like the balancing of a seesaw about a pivot point with respect
to the torques produced.

If you are making measurements from the center of mass point for a two-mass system
then the center of mass condition can be expressed as

where r1 and r2 locate the masses. The center of mass lies on the line connecting the two
masses.

Center of Mass for Particles

The center of mass is the point at which all the mass can be considered to be
"concentrated" for the purpose for the purpose of calculating the "first moment", i.e.,
mass times distance. For two masses this distance is calculated from
For the more general collection of N particles this becomes

and when extended to three dimensions:

This approach applies to diccrete masses even if they are not point masses if the position
xi is taken to be the position of the center of mass of the ith mass. It also points the way
toward the calculation of the center of mass of an extended object

Center of Mass: Continuous

For a continuous distribution of mass, the expression for the center of mass of a
collection of particles :

becomes an infinite sum and is expressed in the form of an integral

For the case of a uniform rod this becomes

This example of a uniform rod previews some common features about the process of
finding the center of mass of a continuous body. Continuous mass distributions require
calculus methods involving an integral over the mass of the object. Such integrals are
typically transformed into spatial integrals by relating the mass to a distance, as with the
linear density M/L of the rod. Exploiting symmetry can give much information: e.g., the
center of mass will be on any rotational symmetry axis. The use of symmetry would tell
you that the center of mass is at the geometric center of the rod without calculation.

Force and Momentum

The net external force acting on an object can be evaluated as the rate of change of
momentum. This turns out to be a more fundamental way of stating the force than the use
of Newton's second law. Using Newton's second law and momentum:

But this limited relationship can be generalized to

and further generalized by calculus methods to include instantaneous rates of change

This formulation of the force relationship

permits varying mass, as in rocket
propulsion.
In the language of calculus, we say that the force is defined as the derivative of the
momentum. The process above involves the product rule for derivatives.

Rocket Propulsion
The thrust of a rocket can be modeled from a generalization of Newton's 2nd Law to
include a variable mass:

In free space this would lead to a rocket velocity

Show

and for a rocket launched from the Earth's surface it leads to the expression

Show

at low altitudes where g can be considered to be constant.

Thrust of a Rocket
Rocket thrust results from the high speed ejection of material and does not require any
medium to "push against". Conservation of momentum dictates that if material is ejected
backward, the forward momentum of the remaining rocket must increase since an
isolated system cannot change its net momentum.

Thrust of a Rocket
 Thrust of a Rocket

Rocket Thrust Discussion

Developing the expression for rocket thrust involves the application of conservation of
momentum in an accelerating reference frame. It can be developed in an approximate
fashion using finite differences and algebra. This requires neglecting terms like .
When the appropriate limits are taken to get an instantaneous expression, these
approximations disappear since the quantities dM and dt approach zero.
 Position
Specifying the position of an object is essential in describing motion. In one dimension
some typical ways are

In two dimensions, either cartesian or polar coordinates may be used, and the use of unit
vectors is common. A position vector r may be expressed in terms of the unit vectors.

In three dimensions, cartesian or spherical polar coordinates are used, as well as other
coordinate systems for specific geometries.

The vector change in position associated with a motion is called the displacement.

Displacement
The displacement of an object is defined as the vector distance from some initial point to
a final point. It is therefore distinctly different from the distance traveled except in the
case of straight line motion. The distance traveled divided by the time is called the speed,
while the displacement divided by the time defines the average velocity.

If the positions of the initial and final points are

known, then the distance relationship can be used
to find the displacement.

Velocity
The average speed of an object is defined as the distance traveled divided by the time
elapsed. Velocity is a vector quantity, and average velocity can be defined as the
displacement divided by the time. For the special case of straight line motion in the x
direction, the average velocity takes the form:

The units for velocity can be implied from the definition to be meters/second or in
general any distance unit over any time unit.

You can approach an expression for the instantaneous velocity at any point on the path by
taking the limit as the time interval gets smaller and smaller. Such a limiting process is
called a derivative and the instantaneous velocity can be defined as

Average Velocity, Straight Line

The average speed of an object is defined as the distance traveled divided by the time
elapsed. Velocity is a vector quantity, and average velocity can be defined as the
displacement divided by the time. For the special case of straight line motion in the x
direction, the average velocity takes the form:

If the beginning and ending velocities for this motion are known, and the acceleration is
constant, the average velocity can also be expressed as

For this special case, these expressions give the same result.

Average Velocity, General

The average speed of an object is defined as the distance traveled divided by the time
elapsed. Velocity is a vector quantity, and average velocity can be defined as the
displacement divided by the time. For general cases involving non-constant acceleration,
this definition must be applied directly because the straight line average velocity
expressions do not work.
If the positions of the initial and final points are known, then the distance relationship can
be used to find the displacement.