From Descartes to a new approach to differential calculus and analysis (Q292277): Difference between revisions

In this short note the author suggests a new approach to the introduction of the derivative, one that eschews for as long as possible the notion of limit. This is because the limit concept is a difficult one for students and also seems a sham as in almost all of the elementary cases the value of the limit is obtained by substituting a variable value in a continuous function. He suggests the simple definition that if \( f(x) - f(a) = q(x)(x-a), q\) continuous, then \(q(a) = f'(a)\). As the author points out this is not a new idea having roots in the work of Descartes, as it picks out the line through \(\bigl(a, f(a)\bigr)\) that has a double point of contact with the graph of \(f\) at that point. His own earlier work, the book [What is calculus? From simple algebra to deep analysis. Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific (2016; Zbl 1325.26005)] and the article [Am. Math. Mon. 118, No. 5, 404--417 (2011; Zbl 1236.26005)], has already suggested this approach. The properties of the derivative are easily obtained from this definition and the ideas lead very naturally to the work of Carathéodory in the late 19th century. Naturally there is a bound to the set of functions for which this works easily; mainly algebraic functions and their inverses.