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  1. Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!rutgers!news.cs.indiana.edu!johnl@spinner.cs.indiana.edu
  2. From: johnl@spinner.cs.indiana.edu (John Lacey)
  3. Newsgroups: sci.math
  4. Subject: Re: Teaching Calculus
  5. Message-ID: <1992Nov9.005052.3384@news.cs.indiana.edu>
  6. Date: 9 Nov 92 05:50:46 GMT
  7. References: <1992Oct28.221335.12173@dartvax.dartmouth.edu>
  8. Organization: Computer Science, Indiana University
  9. Lines: 20
  10.  
  11. Benjamin.J.Tilly@dartmouth.edu (Benjamin J. Tilly) writes:
  12.  
  13. >I know that many people feel that using limits to teach calculus
  14. >confuses the students and it might be better to have an alternate
  15. >approach. How about the following one which uses continuous functions
  16. >to replace limits?
  17.  
  18. I, for one, feel that it is not limits but how they are taught that is
  19. confusing.  I have yet to see a teacher that doesn't totally confuse
  20. people about when you can substitute the limit in, and when you cannot.
  21.  
  22. But, to side-step the issue entirely, I agree with Tom Apostol's view
  23. that pedagogically, historically, and perhaps even mathematically,
  24. integration more natually precedes differentiation.
  25.  
  26. -- 
  27. John Lacey, agnostic believer
  28.  
  29. "There is no greater sorrow than thinking back upon a happy time in misery."
  30.                                                          -- Dante's Inferno
  31.