Course Goals

Student Learning Goals

In Math 252 you will be expanding your calculus knowledge to more than 2 dimensions. Below is an outline of our content with some examples of what we will be able to do.

• We begin by introducing vectors and the associated operations on them.

  • Example Question: If you pick three points in 3D space, what is the angle between them?

• We move on to working with functions that output vectors and applying calculus techniques to those new functions.

  • Example Question: Wind has a direction and a strength. What type of function can output the values of wind?

• Continuing on the advanced functions, we look at functions that intake more than one variable. Instead of f(x) we may have f(x,y,z). As before, we will apply calculus techniques, and invent some new ones, to these functions.

• Switching gears, we work on expanding the idea of integration into more than 2 dimensions.

  • Example Question: In 2 dimensions integrals represent area under a curve, what would integration in 3 dimensions represent?

• Lastly, we combine our above skills to extend the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus into multiple dimensions.

Course Description

Study of vectors and solid analytic geometry, functions of several variables, partial derivatives, multiple integrals, and line and surface integrals. Green’s Theorem, Divergence Theorem, Stokes’s Theorem.