2.6 Summary and Next Steps

Hopefully this very quick review of univariate calculus serves both to help remind you of the mathematical skills we’ll be building on in this course, and to provide some perspective on how we’ll use math in the context of economic theory. Probably the most important thing to note is that for many of the graphs you’ll need to draw in Econ 50, you do not need to plot every single point with mathematical accuracy. The main objectives of the graphs you’ll be seeing and generating is to tell a story; that story will generally depend on the shape of the graph, its slope at certain key points, and accurate locations of intercepts and other critical points. Indeed, we’ll generally not be as interested in solving for a particular numerical solution, but rather characterizing the solution to a problem as a function of its underlying variables, and understanding how those variables affect the shape of the graph. Hence the interactive diagrams, which help illustrate how changes in underlying parameters affect the way a graph looks and behaves.

In section on Wednesday and Thursday nights, you’ll have your first practical introduction to multivariable calculus; we’ll then go over that same material in a more general way in Friday’s class. I’ve also set up this Khan Academy course with some unit tests on the material from this week. Those unit tests don’t affect your grade for Econ 50 in any way whatsoever; but if you feel at all rusty on any of this material, it’s definitely a good idea to go back and review it before we move on to more complicated stuff.