AP Calculus AB
Advanced Placement Calculus AB covering limits, derivatives, and integrals.
Practical Applications
Applications in Economics and Biology
Calculus in the Real World
Calculus models everything from profits in business to populations in nature!
Economics
- Marginal Cost/Revenue: Derivatives show how cost or revenue changes with each additional item made or sold.
- Optimization: Use derivatives to maximize profit or minimize loss.
Biology
- Population Growth: Integrals predict total population over time, even with changing growth rates.
- Medicine: Derivatives track how quickly medicine concentration changes in the bloodstream.
Why It Matters
Calculus helps industries make better decisions and scientists understand living systems' behaviors.
Examples
Marginal cost, the derivative of the cost function, tells a company whether to make more products.
Biologists use integrals to estimate fish populations in a lake over a year.