ABSTRACT
In the last chapter, I began with the fundamental concepts of calculus and defined the terms, notation, and methods associated with the calculus operations called the integral and derivative of continuous functions. In looking at ways to explain these operations and in thinking about how to implement them in a digital computer, several other operators naturally popped up. These were the forward, backward, and central difference operators, as well as the shift operator, z. [10.1] ll.x; = x t+l-xt forward difference
Finally, I introduced the all-important relationship
[10.5] liD z = e , where h is the step size, or time interval between successive points, and D is the ordinary derivative operator with respect to time.
