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Calculus

In a stylistic sense, Algebra starts to become Calculus when we write the preceding example, y = x², in the form

y(x) = x²

which we read as "y of x equals x squared." This is how we signal that we mean to think of y as a function of x, and right away we are leading into the terminology of Calculus. Recall the final sections of the preceding Chapter.

However, Calculus really begins when we start talking about the rate of change of y as x varies.