What maths is used?
Main areas are: • Calculus: Basic rules of differentiation and integration are assumed. Extensive use is made of partial differentiation, total differentials, and the chain rule. • Optimisation: The basic Lagrangean method is assumed. The complications that arise with corner solutions are explained where relevant; a minimal familiarity with Kuhn-Tucker is helpful • Vectors: Vector notation is extensively used and simple algebraic operations – addition of vectors, multiplication of vector by a scalar and so on – is assumed. But we make no use of deeper results on vector spaces. • Matrices: A very small usage is made of matrix concepts (perhaps once or twice in the whole course) • Differential equations: There is one point at which we briefly use simple first-order differential equations. • Analysis: Some familiarity with the concepts of continuity and of the convexity of sets is helpful, but both concepts are carefully explained where they are needed.
