3 ms·
Maybe that’s not universal, but the way the notation was taught to me in school (Germany) was that the finite sum Σf(x)Δx is simply written as ∫f(x)dx in the li
by codeflo 5y ago
Maybe that’s not universal, but the way the notation was taught to me in school (Germany) was that the finite sum Σf(x)Δx is simply written as ∫f(x)dx in the limit. So dx is really just an infinitesimal Δx, and ∫ is the summation symbol, only written with a large Latin (as opposed to the usual Greek) “S”.
That’s useful to know because several integration tricks become easy if you keep that relationship in mind. If you can transform a sum, you can transform the corresponding integral. (With the usual caveats around degenerate cases.)
Similarly, for differentiation, the limit of Δy/Δx is written as dy/dx. Again, knowing this enables you to derive otherwise complicated looking transformations.