Understanding Calculus II: Problems, Solutions, and Tips

Learn what distinguishes Calculus II from Calculus I. Then embark on a three-episode review, beginning with the top 10 student pitfalls from precalculus. Next, Professor Edwards gives a refresher on basic functions and their graphs, which are essential tools for solving calculus problems.

In your second warm-up episode, review the concept of derivatives, recalling the derivatives of trigonometric, logarithmic, and exponential functions. Apply your knowledge of derivatives to the analysis of graphs. Close by reversing the problem: Given the derivative of a function, what is the original function?

Complete your review by going over the basic facts of integration. After a simple example of integration by substitution, turn to definite integrals and the area problem. Reacquaint yourself with the fundamental theorem of calculus and the second fundamental theorem of calculus. End the episode by solving a simple differential equation.

In the first of three episodes on differential equations, learn various techniques for solving these very useful equations, including separation of variables and Euler’s method, which is the simplest numerical technique for finding approximate solutions. Then look at growth and decay models, with two intriguing applications.

Continue your study of differential equations by examining orthogonal trajectories, curves that intersect a given family of curves at right angles. These occur in thermodynamics and other fields. Then develop the famous logistic differential equation, which is widely used in mathematical biology.

Investigate linear differential equations, which typically cannot be solved by separation of variables. The key to their solution is what Professor Edwards calls the “magic integrating factor.” Try several examples and applications. Then return to an equation involving Euler’s method, which was originally considered in an earlier lesson.

Use integration to find areas and volumes. Begin by trying your hand at planar regions bounded by two curves. Then review the disk method for calculating volumes. Next, focus on ellipses as well as solids obtained by rotating ellipses about an axis. Finally, see how your knowledge of ellipsoids applies to the planet Saturn.

Continue your exploration of the power of integral calculus. First, review arc length computations. Then, calculate the areas of surfaces of revolution. Close by surveying the concept of work, answering questions such as, how much work does it take to lift an object from Earth’s surface to 800 miles in space?

Study moments and centers of mass, developing formulas for finding the balancing point of a planar area, or lamina. Progress from one-dimensional examples to arbitrary planar regions. Close with the famous theorem of Pappus, using it to calculate the volume of a torus.

Begin a series of episodes on techniques of integration, also known as finding antiderivatives. After reviewing some basic formulas from Calculus I, learn to develop the method called integration by parts, which is based on the product rule for derivatives. Explore applications involving centers of mass and area.

Explore integrals of trigonometric functions, finding that they are often easy to evaluate if either sine or cosine occurs to an odd power. If both are raised to an even power, you must resort to half-angle trigonometric formulas. Then look at products of tangents and secants, which also divide into easy and hard cases.

Trigonometric substitution is a technique for converting integrands to trigonometric integrals. Evaluate several cases, discovering that you can conveniently represent these substitutions by right triangles. Also, what do you do if the solution you get by hand doesn’t match the calculator’s answer?

Put your precalculus skills to use by splitting up complicated algebraic expressions to make them easier to integrate. Learn how to deal with linear factors, repeated linear factors, and irreducible quadratic factors. Finally, apply these techniques to the solution of the logistic differential equation.

Revisit the concept of limits from elementary calculus, focusing on expressions that are indeterminate because the limit of the function may not exist. Learn how to use L’Hopital’s famous rule for evaluating indeterminate forms, applying this valuable theorem to a variety of examples.

So far, you have been evaluating definite integrals using the fundamental theorem of calculus. Study integrals that appear to be outside this procedure. Such “improper integrals” usually involve infinity as an end point and may appear to be unsolvable, until you split the integral into two parts.

Start the first of 11 episodes on one of the most important topics in Calculus II: infinite series. The concept of an infinite series is based on sequences, which can be thought of as an infinite list of real numbers. Explore the characteristics of different sequences, including the celebrated Fibonacci sequence.

Look at an example of a telescoping series. Then study geometric series, in which each term in the summation is a fixed multiple of the previous term. Next, prove an important convergence theorem. Finally, apply your knowledge of geometric series to repeating decimals.

Explore an important test for divergence of an infinite series: If the terms of a series do not tend to zero, then the series diverges. Solve a bouncing ball problem. Then investigate a paradoxical property of the famous Cantor set.

Does the celebrated harmonic series diverge or converge? Discover a proof using the integral test. Then generalize to define an entire class of series called p-series, and prove a theorem showing when they converge. Close with the sum of the harmonic series, the fascinating Euler-Mascheroni constant, which is not known to be rational or irrational.

Develop more convergence tests, learning how the direct comparison test for positive-term series compares a given series with a known series. The limit comparison test is similar but more powerful, since it allows analysis of a series without having a term-by-term comparison with a known series.

Having developed tests for positive-term series, turn to series having terms that alternate between positive and negative. See how to apply the alternating series test. Then use absolute value to look at the concepts of conditional and absolute convergence for series with positive and negative terms.

Finish your exploration of convergence tests with the ratio and root tests. The ratio test is particularly useful for series having factorials, whereas the root test is useful for series involving roots to a given power. Close by asking if these tests work on the p-series, introduced in an earlier episode.

Try out techniques for approximating a function with a polynomial. The first example shows how to construct the first-degree Maclaurin polynomial for the exponential function. These polynomials are a special case of Taylor polynomials, which you investigate along with Taylor’s theorem.

Discover that a power series can be thought of as an infinite polynomial. The key question with a power series is to find its interval of convergence. In general, this will be a point, an interval, or perhaps the entire real line. Also examine differentiation and integration of power series.