For students to succeed at finding the derivatives and antiderivatives of calculus - For students to succeed at finding the derivatives and

# For students to succeed at finding the derivatives and antiderivatives of calculus

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For students to succeed at finding the derivatives and antiderivatives of calculus, they will need facility with algebraic expressions , particularly in modification and transformation of such expressions. Leonhard Euler wrote the first precalculus book in 1748 called Introduction to the Analysis of the Infinite , which "was meant as a survey of concepts and methods in analysis and analytic geometry preliminary to the study of differential and integral calculus." [2] He began with the fundamental concepts of variables and functions . His innovation is noted for its use of exponentiation to introduce the transcendental functions . The general logarithm, to an arbitrary positive base, Euler presents as the inverse of an exponential function . Then the natural logarithm is obtained by taking as base "the number for which the hyperbolic logarithm is one", sometimes called Euler's number , and written e . This appropriation of the significant number from Gregoire de Saint-Vincent