# calculus **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 14, 2003, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculus/175298 "2003-05-14T23:28:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![captainQwark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@captainQwark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/captainQwark)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculus/175298/1 "2003-05-14T23:28:59Z")
Is calculus truly hard? I don’t know much about calculus. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculus/175298/2 "2003-05-14T23:31:48Z")
It’s not so bad, I guess. Depends how mathematically inclined you are. Haj ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculus/175298/3 "2003-05-14T23:32:32Z")
It’s as hard as any math. If you breezed thru algebra and trig, you’ll probably breeze thru calc. If you suffered thru the former two, you’ll probably suffer as much or more thru calc. ---
**Author:** ![LilShieste](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9f8e36/32.png) [@LilShieste](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilShieste)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculus/175298/4 "2003-05-14T23:33:00Z")
This should probably be in IMHO… I guess it really depends on what you enjoy/are good at in Mathematics. Personally, I had a rough time with Calculus (1-3), but I did really well in my Linear Algebra class, in which Calculus 2 was a pre-requisite. This doesn’t surprise me too much, because I really enjoy algebra, and manipulating equations. LilShieste ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculus/175298/5 "2003-05-14T23:42:17Z")
Here’s a whole [list of calculus resources](http://www.calculus.org/). ---
**Author:** ![g8rguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@g8rguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/g8rguy)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculus/175298/6 "2003-05-14T23:46:31Z")
I remember, way back when I was in high school, being told that calculus is a big step up from algebra and trig. Personally, I don’t really see that. ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculus/175298/7 "2003-05-14T23:54:14Z")
Certainly sounds pretty hard when my dentist is scraping it off my teeth. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculus/175298/8 "2003-05-15T00:11:38Z")
This is really a matter of opinion. ---
**Author:** ![SRVick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@SRVick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SRVick)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculus/175298/9 "2003-05-15T00:17:36Z")
Single-variable isn’t too bad. Multivariable is pretty tough. IMO, of course. ---
**Author:** ![captainQwark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@captainQwark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/captainQwark)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculus/175298/10 "2003-05-15T00:33:27Z")
could someone give me example of a calculus problem? ---
**Author:** ![Mariemarie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/58f4c7/32.png) [@Mariemarie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mariemarie)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculus/175298/11 "2003-05-15T00:37:47Z")
No, Man, Calculus is cool. You get to draw lots of new squiggly symbols and trip out on concepts like “infinitesimal” and “the limit as squiggle aproaches squiggle”, and stuff. Partial derivatives are fun. Tree diagrams–pretty! Areas, volumes, rates of change of rates of change, and so on. Woohoo! Just cut out little squares of graph paper to paste in your notebook, and you’ll do great! ---
**Author:** ![SRVick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@SRVick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SRVick)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculus/175298/12 "2003-05-15T00:54:51Z")
> [@](#): > > could someone give me example of a calculus problem? Examples of the two basic calculus problems: 1. Using the graph y=x^2, what is the slope of the tangent line at x=2? 2. Using the same graph, what is the area under the curve starting at x=1 and ending at x=3? ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculus/175298/13 "2003-05-15T03:48:58Z")
Calculus is the make-or-break class for a lot of people. It’s very rare to find somebody who went much further in math and stopped, but there are a lot of people who get to calculus and decide that’s it. How hard or easy you find it depends a lot on your teacher, but also on whether you’re taking it at the college or high school level. High school classes tend to be a bit slower, so that helps. Calculus is used for _everything_. Want to know how to land the space shuttle? It’s all calc. How about figuring out how much paint you need to cover an elliptical room? Calculus again. In fact, the formula for the area of a circle is a pretty elementary result in calculus. Just FYI, it was calculus that finally got me, but this was early 20th century stuff. Unless you’re going for a math degree, you won’t encounter anything done after 1800. ---
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculus/175298/14 "2003-05-15T04:04:37Z")
Pre-calc was where I stopped. Particularly when we got to “imaginary numbers”. My brain said “That’s it!” and left the room. ---
**Author:** ![Rabid\_Squirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Rabid\_Squirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rabid_Squirrel)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculus/175298/15 "2003-05-15T04:33:56Z")
Calculus is OK’ish. Probably something you don’t need if you’re never going into engineering, sciences, economics, statistics, advanced business management…ya know, anything that counts ;). Really cool to show to friends how equations tends to this value as you add up an infinite number of nonexistant segments tending to nothing. :rolleyes: Like all maths, it’s really difficult to learn unless there’s some sort of context. Ask the teacher why you’re doing it, or how it’s useful. ---
**Author:** ![Nightime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Nightime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightime)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculus/175298/16 "2003-05-15T04:44:18Z")
Calculus starts off easier than trig or linear algebra, but it gets harder. You generally start off with an easy calculus class in high school with limits and derivatives among other things. Then in college you get integrals and the fundamental theorem of calculus, which are still pretty easy. But then you have multivariable vector calculus: The derivative of functions from n-dimensional to m-dimensional Euclidean space, constrained extrema and Lagrange multipliers, Gauss’ theorem, double and triple integrals, etc. This is where it starts getting tough. In fact I didn’t take any more math classes after taking this last one. ---
**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculus/175298/17 "2003-05-15T06:20:28Z")
You do calculus every time someone throws a ball and you reach out and catch it. ---
**Author:** ![Eternal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@Eternal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eternal)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculus/175298/18 "2003-05-15T06:28:38Z")
You do Sociology everytime you walk down the street. You do Literature everytime you walk past a bookstore. You do Microbiology everytime you brush your teeth. ---
**Author:** ![censored](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/35a633/32.png) [@censored](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/censored)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculus/175298/19 "2003-05-15T06:38:10Z")
I’m taking “high school calculus” right now, which is a slightly easier version of AP Calculus AB. I probably would have been better taking AB, in fact, as I do not get any AP credit for HS Calc and the material is not that different. Anyway… Math has always sucked for me; therefore, calculus sucks for me. Our class runs up to applications of integrals (volume, area) and apparently the last items we will do this year are “Improper integrals” and “partial fractions with linear/quadratic factors.” Not that I really know what that means, though, nor will I ever. Give me my history book back. 😑 ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculus/175298/20 "2003-05-15T07:47:09Z")
I think the concepts behind calculus are easy, but they are different from the math you’ve had up till that point so it takes a while to get used to it. They are also important concepts for understanding this world. Calculus allows you to deal with situations where your current situation (e.g. position) determines what happens to you (e.g. how your velocity and acceleration changes), which in turn determines where you’ll be in the future. That’s how our world works. Physics is just applied calculus. (Though you may not get the full impact until you get to differential equations which you may not see in the intro course.) Calculus _classes_ can be hard. Many classes still force you to memorize various integration formulas. Don’t feel bad if you don’t do well in this area, it’s not that important in the long run. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calculus/175298.md?page=2)