The material takes about half the semester and is preparation for differential calculus. The differential calculus, begun by Newton and Leibniz in the seventeenth century, concerns the rate of change of variable quantities. Differentiation helps you calculate for example the instantaneous speed of a falling body. We also show how to find maximum and minimum values of a varying quantity. Calculus is essential to anyone wanting to study higher mathematics.
Students learn from marked work how to make clear a mathematical argument.
The above are in UEA library. For differential calculus I issue each student with an 8-page condensed set of typed lecture notes, which I greatly expand in the lectures. Arithmetic and combining powers. Logarithms - base 10, any base. The right-angled triangle notation for sides and vertices and angles.