The Gateway

Calculus is the gateway to math, engineering, and the sciences. It's hard for me to consider anyone educated who doesn't know at least a little. It's a forbiddingly fortified gateway though. Typical calculus texts these days have 1300 pages or so and weigh and cost roughly as much as a Mercedes S600.

Could that be overkill? I mean there are only one or two real ideas in calculus - the rest is technology.

Right?

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