Day I: The Quest Begins

I know next to nothing about calculus. I know only that it was invented by Sir Isaac Newton, is a fundamental of higher mathematics, and has a reputation for being difficult. Being a math-minded person, I decided the other day that I would no longer maintain this gap in my knowledge of mathematics. I decided to teach myself calculus.

And so I present a mission statement: Using only readily available, free online learning resources, I will teach myself calculus without any input from teachers or anyone but friends and, perhaps, the commenters on this blog.

I hope to do this in one year, at the most.

Being a student currently, I don't have the money for conventional textbooks. I do, however, have a scanner and I plan on scanning my work and uploading it in my blog posts, should it be relevant. I realized while simultaneously writing this and skimming the WIkipedia article on calculus that I really have no idea what I'm doing here, but that's the idea; this will be a learning experience, and certainly, quite the experience.

My materials:

Graph paper (a lot of it)

Internet resources

Calculator

Several pens/pencils

Patience

Godspeed, self.