The “Method” of Small Displacements
1. Introduction One of the most important things about calculus and its subfields is the ability to think about “very small” changes in certain variables and pull out information from them. The derivative of a variable with respect to another variable essentially tells us the relation between a very small change in (termed ) and the very small change in (termed ) that results. But how do we define “very small?” Limits are a powerful way of doing so: we…