Cal...cu...lus? What is this Cal..cu...lus?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Being a Computer Science Major I had to take lots of math and of course plenty of Calculus.

I sat there for three quarters trying to figure out the usefulness of it (I did use the derivation stuff in some of my MBA coursework). Then we started looking at taking a line and rotating it around an axis and then figuring out the volume of the container. I thought “Great, I can finally do something fun, if not useful with this stuff.” I envisioned being able to impress those with less math ability by figuring out the volume of an odd shaped container with nothing but Calculus. Then I realized to do so, I would first have to know the equation of the line that produced the container, so I ended up back at the point of wondering when I would ever use Calculus.

Other than in a couple of my MBA classes, I have not used Calculus and never want to again.

Jeffery

22

Just a quick refresher cause it sounds like some people are a bit cunfuzzled as to what classes he’s in. Its a HS class not college yet.



--->-------->-------Typical Progression------->------>---------->------->------->
~Jr High~           ~High School~              ~College~

Pre-Algebra - Geometry - Algebra - Trig - **Calculus** - Calc II - Calc III - Diff EQ

The bold calculus is where he’s obviously at. The prefixes AB and BC define different progressions of HS calc, with the BC variety taking things a step further into college material with a good intro to Calc II. Now, it is suprising that in the BC version you’ll spend a full term on the trig refresher, maybe he means the trig based calculus.

Yes, and they all are the whipping boys of Taylor or Fourier.

My advice is to think of things graphically. Calc isn’t hard, but most kids get tripped up because the answers aren’t really answers, usually a correct answer results another equation. In pre-algebra you usually get a number, in algebra you get a constant variable answer, but in calculus you sometimes get graphs for answers, and functions representing those answers. If you’re just looking at the string of characters representing the curve thinking it will make sense you’ll probably struggle “getting” calc. But once you make the graphical/numerical relationship the concepts fall into place nicely.

You really should bone up on your trig though, it depends on the teacher, but most really like using alot of trig functions instead of algebraic functions in the problems and examples because trig functions usually reduce to nice succinct answers. Same for natural logs. So, get those concepts down and the actual calculus will come easily.

If you want something to fear, glance at some Diff EQ books, or find some exapmles of Taylor or Fourier series transforms. Those fried my brain good.

23

And now…for the coruption of our youth…

First of all, calculus does suck. It’s not really diffucult as long as you don’t fall behind, but it does suck. What makes it suck is that in teaching it, there is no practicality. The closest things to real life I’ve seen in a calculus book are word problems like, “you have a conical shaped swimming pool thta is x feet tall with a base diameter of y feet. the pool is draining at z gallons per minute. How fast is the water level dropping.” As an engineer, my answer would be, “Simplify the problem and buy a square pool with a uniform depth to begin with.”

The good news is, you will probably never have to use most of what you learn. While most scientific processes and equations are based on calculus, most of the ground work work has been done. In 14 years as an engineer (I have a masters in materials engineering)–to include basic research, design and development work, the hardest thing I’ve had to do that dealt with calculus we integrating a cosine function.

Don’t let this stuff scare you away from scientific or technical careers or study.

Good luck

24

I probably don’t have the experience to comment on this, but it’s never stopped me before.

I recently started my introductory calculus course. I think that my levels are different than Omniscient posted, but it should be fairly close.

Anyway, so far I love my course. I find it much easier than Math 30. A lot of the problems we’ve been doing so far seem to have real applications, especially related to physics (another class I love). Everything makes sense, I haven’t been lost yet, and the teacher makes everything seem easy.

I just wrote my first test today. I either aced it or flunked it (I was done while everyone else seemed to be on the first page). If I flunked it, I may come back tomorrow with a different point of view…

25

Calculus is not that bad at all, IMHO. It may seem like the evil personified while you’re taking it, but once you take it, and think about it, it becomes immensely useful. In this I strongly disagree with the poster above.

If your plan in life is to become a shopkeeper, or a business manager, then you probably won’t use math above the middle school level anyway. But if you want more, math is essential.

With calculus, you can start undestanding how the universe works! I don’t know of a higher goal than that.

Behold:

div(E) = 4 Pi rho
div(B) = 0
curl(E) = -1/c dB/dt
curlB = 4 Pi/c J + 1/c dE/dt

That’s four calculus equations. Hidden within them is ALL of electricity and magnetism! (speaking classically). And if you learn to read them, you will see beauty and elegance unlike any other. It is not the beauty of a beautiful girl, but something far more abstract, and yet just as satisfying but in a different way.

p = m v
F = dp/dt
Energy = constant
Three equations. A large fraction of all of classical mechanics. They describe almost everything you do in life.

That is what math is all about. We are made out of the Universe. Our (evolved, and thus influenced by the Universe) logic systems allow us to play beatiful conceptual games, building up wondorous systems of ideas. And then we look out at the world around us, and we see that these games that we’ve been playing ARE the world, that they describe it, that they predict it, they let us understand how the Universe works.

If that’s not useful, I don’t know what is.

Calculus is but the first step to the understanding. But an absolutely essential one.

-Geon
(for full disclosure: I’m a physics major (if you haven’t guessed that by now =) )

26

Omniscient, you’re almost exactly right. The only thing that’s different with my course is that the first term isn’t a trig refresher, it IS the trig course. In our school, the process is Algebra 1-Geometry-Algebra 2-Trig/Pre-Calc, etc. So far, the trig actually isn’t too bad, and since most of the replies seem at least a bit positive, I’m not quite as terrified as I was before. Thanks, guys!

Oh, but that doesn’t mean that there won’t be a whole lot of math questions coming from yours truly in the near future.

27

Count me in as a hater of Calculus also.
Three weeks into the class and I’ve been turned into a confused, nervous wreck. We took a test just the other day, and my mind drew a blank. I know I failed it.
I guess I’m taking the easy way out, because I already told my teacher that I’m most likely going to drop her class, and I probably will. But that’s just me. I already have 40 class periods a week with no study halls. If I’m struggling with algebra review (even though I never learned any of the stuff she’s been teaching us, so why does she call it review?), it can only get harder.

28

I blindly followed the Calculus methodology for months, not really understanding what I was doing, just happy to get the right answers. It wasn’t until I did some Tech Drawing that practical examples of Trig and Integration and Differentiation made everything so much clearer, and now I can see where Calculus is used in the real world. (We couldn’t have modern video games without it, I should think)

However, I have long since lost the knack, and interest, so haven’t really looked at Calc in over ten years. Thank God.

29

I’m in like my fourth year of calculus; it all started with Pre-Calc my junior year of high school. Then was Calc AB in senior year, declined my credit, took first semester Calc freshmen year of college, then second semester, and now I’m in multivariable Calc. (Mmmmm, Calculus in three dimensions.)

It’s really not that bad, you just have to be able to conceptualize stuff. And learn the notation, if you don’t know the notation, you’ll get very tripped up. Same with trig, though there is more memorization with trig, but everything has its tricks to it.

I like calculus, personally. I use it in my physics classes too. I think it’s cool that I can start out with dx/dt = v and dv/dt = a and end up with the three major equations for projectile motion.

As long as you have a good teacher, you’ll be set. (Just make sure you do your homework.)

30

Jester, I have to agree with you. I’m also in BC Calculus. I sit in class every day without understanding a word that is being said. Math is not my thing, either. My teacher is also very very bad. He doesn’t actually teach, he just stands there and tells us that we should already know what he is supposed to be teaching us. He then follows that up by comparing us to the smartest guy in the class, making us feel terribly stupid. I love that class! Anyway, the point of all this is to day I pity you, but misery loves company, so maybe knowing that you aren’t the only one suffering will make you feel better
~Lisa

31

Much appreciated, Angel. Good to know that I’m not alone.

32

I know my calculus.

It says you plus me equals us.

33

My only regret is that I didn’t take Calculus while in high school. That way, I get 6 credits towards college before I even step in. The derivative, secants and cosecants will come together and be actually practical in your life if you stick with it.

34

calculus is cool stuff. i took it in high school, and got placement into an accelerated course in college. didn’t do well enough for credit, but that’s fine. the way that class worked was we did calc 1 and calc 2 in one semester. got credit and grade for both. if i’d gone right into calc 2, i’d get credit for calc 1, but nothing would go towards my gpa from it. getting 2 a’s in math that term was the only thing that saved my gpa. but really, it’s not that bad at all, although it’s odd you’re only getting a semester of actual calculus. especially considering it’s calc bc. i did ab in high school and that was plenty for me, thanks. good luck with it. if you need help with anything, it sounds like there’s quite a few people here that would be able to help.