Calculus

[spkorb]

I had a strange dream last night that I was in a setting where Calculus was required. This never happens in real life, but I was alarmed at the prospect. I never understood calculus. I stopped understanding math after College Algerbra. I had no problem with Analytical Gemetry, but Trig required too much faith. I made Bs through Calc I, II, III

Comments

[grimepoch]

Interesting. For me, Calc III made it all make sense. That with all the work from Physics class and understanding things like going from distance to speed formulas using Calculus made it make sense.

Then, when I got into electomagnetic fields and things like capacitors, it was really icing on the cake and calculus became useful for me as an engineer. Mainly, the whole concept of AREA under the CURVE is what helped me understand it all.

[spkorb]

EM was the class that scared me away from getting an EE degree... that and Thermo. I thought I couldn't do it unless I understood calculus. I've got some understanding of area under the curve, but it's not hooked into the math genuinely for me so all I had left was terror :)

I think if I ever win the lottery I'm going back to college to understand all that stuff (and Automata Theory, dammit)! It may be terrifying, but it's still plenty cool.

[badger]

"A math professor was explaining a particularly complicated calculus concept to his class when a frustrated pre-med student interrupts him. "Why do we have to learn this stuff?" the pre-med blurts out. The professor pauses, and answers matter-of-factly: "Because math saves lives." "How?" demanded the student. "How on Earth does calculus save lives?" "Because," replied the professor, "it keeps certain people out of medical school." "

from

http://www.metafilter.com/76377/Two-mathematicians-walk-into-a-bar