I have internalised that in mathematics nice things come in bouquets. If there is a thing defined with properties A, B, C, and there is an other thing defined with properties D, E, F, then chances are that those 2 things are the same thing, because there are only so few nice concepts.
There are many types of examples, and many different reasons why I don't find a particular connection or connection type surprising. So I can concentrate on memorising them, and building intuition.
For the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus:
- int f' = f: the sum of the change is the thing itself. E.g. pour water in the bathtub, if you sum the rate you pour, that's the total water in the bathtub
- int f' = f(t2) - f(t1) : same but water differences between 2 times.
- (int f)' = f: the rate of the sum is the function itself. If you go and integrate your function f, the integrate function's change rate at x is f(x)
- and so on.
Also someone mentioned discrete functions, partial sums and difference series are indeed easier. Say, F is your gross money and f is your monthly salary, or F is gross amount of rain and f is daily rain. Summing a series or taking differences between 2 consecutive data points are each other's inverses.> the area under an entire curve being related to the derivative at only two points
This is a very wrong sentence. The area under f on [a,b] is not related to the derivative of f at a and b. The area under f on [0,x] is a real function F(x) by definition, and there is nothing surprising that the area of f on [a,b] is F(b)-F(a). Simple interval arithmetic. Granted F, the integral function, is related to f: F' = f.
tl;dr : in the "fundamental theorem of calculus" there are 2 main observations:
- the operators 'sum of' and 'change rate' are each other's inverse and commute:
(int f)' = int (f') = f
F' = f <==> int f = F
- from interval arithmetics:
S(a,b) = S(0,b) - S(0,a)