Calculus is the study of change of one or more variables with respect to another variable. Calculus has two main operators: differentiation and integration. Differentiation can be used to study the change of one variable with respect to another. Integration can be used to find the area bounded by a function.
Calculus plays an important role in computer science, for example, in the comparison of the performance of various algorithms and the complexity of various problems. These are often expressed using big O notation, which relies on the idea of the limits of ratios of functions as a variable tends to infinity.
On the practical programming side, there are several fields that will require calculus to a greater or lesser extent:
- Numerical analysis and computation.
- Signal processing (Image, video, audio, etc).
- Data analysis and prediction for business applications.
- Modeling of dynamical systems.
- Machine learning.
- Physics engines for video games.
