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SKILL BUILDER: Intuitive Calculus
curve. It is also proportional to the area under
the blue derivative curve, since each Lego brick
contributes one rectangle of area we can add up
to get the whole.
In calculus, adding up a quantity represented
by a curve is called taking its integral. Generally
speaking, an integral is what you get when you
add up what is underneath a curve: the area
under a curve, or the volume under a surface.
Let’s recap what we did.
• We started with a red wall that was 0 bricks
high, then 1, 4, 9, 16, up to 25.
• Then we created a new blue wall made up of
the differences from column to column