Calculus I
Limits → derivatives → integrals → the Fundamental Theorem.
- Units
- 6 units
- Skills
- 21 skills
- Problems
- 361 problems
For engineering & STEM students
Duolingo-grade practice for the university math you actually have to pass — calculus, linear algebra, differential equations, probability. Every answer is verified by a computer algebra system, never guessed.






Chapter I · Woolsthorpe, 1666
Everyone had watched apples fall. Newton asked a different question — not where the apple is, but how fast it is moving at this exact instant. The answer needed a kind of math that did not exist yet.
The question
Every tenth of a second the apple covers more ground than the tenth before. Its position is easy to write down. Its speed at a single instant is the whole problem.
Chapter II · The derivative
Take two moments on the apple’s height curve and draw the line through them. Its slope is the average speed between those moments. Now slide the second moment toward the first.
The limit
The gap never quite reaches zero, but the slope stops changing. That settled number is the speed at one instant. Newton called it a fluxion. You call it a derivative.
A function of its own
Walk the tangent along the curve and record its slope as you go. What you trace is a new function — velocity — and for a falling apple it is a straight line.
Chapter III · The integral
Flip the question. You know the speed at every instant — how far did the apple fall? Cut time into strips, treat the speed as constant on each, and stack their areas.
Refine
Two strips overshoot badly. Two hundred and fifty-six barely miss. Push the count to infinity and the sum stops being an estimate and becomes the integral.
The fundamental theorem
The area under the speed curve is exactly the height we dropped from. Slicing and slope-taking undo each other — that is why derivatives and integrals are one course, not two.

Chapter IV · Newton’s cannon
Newton’s thought experiment: fire the apple from a mountaintop. Faster, and it lands farther. Fast enough, and the ground curves away exactly as quickly as the apple falls toward it. It never lands. It is in orbit.
Pull back
The pull that dropped the apple bends the Moon’s path around the Earth — every second, forever. One law. Written with the derivative you just learned.
Moon size to scale. Distance not — it is 60 Earth radii and the screen is not that wide.
1687 · Principia
From an apple to the Moon in twenty years of mathematics. The calculus you take in first year is the tool Newton had to invent to write this down.
Your turn
Limits, derivatives, integrals, and the theorem that ties them — in four scrolls. Nabla is where you learn to do it, one verified problem at a time.
Try a lesson right hereLunar maps · NASA/GSFC Scientific Visualization Studio
Inside the app
These are the actual screens from the current build, and the lesson is live — three problems from the Calculus I bank, answers verified by SymPy. Get one wrong on purpose. See what Del does.

Tap the tab bar. Tap the big button.
Screens
Seven courses
Not arithmetic dressed up. Real first- and second-year engineering math, with the opening unit of every course free — a place to start, not a demo.
verified problems
skills
formulas
Limits → derivatives → integrals → the Fundamental Theorem.
Parts, partial fractions, series, Taylor, polar.
Row reduction to eigenvalues.
Gradients, tangent planes, triple integrals, curl.
Separable to Laplace, with stability.
Bayes to hypothesis tests and regression.
An opt-in refresher, never the default.
Correct, always
One wrong answer and an engineering student uninstalls — rightly. So a computer algebra system (SymPy) is the source of truth for every problem and every worked solution. A language model never decides what is right; it only explains steps that were already proven.
scripts/content/generate_calc1.py → src/content/calc1.json
differentiate a·sin(kx) — parameters sampled, degenerate cases rejected
canonical answer + step-by-step derivation from a CAS, not a model
simplify(candidate − canonical) = 0, then numeric spot checks
answer, steps, difficulty, tags — deterministic, $0 at runtime
the whole bank inside the app; Del explains, never arbitrates
{
"id": "lim-direct-1",
"skillId": "limits-basic",
"difficulty": "intro",
"questionLatex": "\\lim_{x \\to 1} \\dfrac{x^{2} + 3x}{x + 2}",
"choices": [
{ "latex": "- \\frac{4}{3}", "correct": false },
{ "latex": "4", "correct": false },
{ "latex": "\\frac{4}{3}", "correct": true },
{ "latex": "3", "correct": false }
],
"solutionSteps": [
"The denominator is nonzero here, so substitute directly.",
"\\lim_{x \\to 1} \\frac{x^{2} + 3x}{x + 2} = \\frac{4}{3}"
]
}Click him. He follows your cursor.
Your spotter
Named after ∇ — the del operator. He counts your reps, hands you the strategy before the steps, and reads your misses for the misconception behind them. Supportive, never condescending. The same character who floats on this page lives in the app, drawn from the same code.
He changes with your day — on the Home Screen widget




Free to start · iOS and Android
The opening unit of every course is free — a real place to start in all seven. No account. No ads. Works offline. Nabla Pro unlocks the rest when you decide it is worth it.
