Calculus! What's the problem??

@laydee (12798)
Philippines
May 12, 2012 8:11am CST
I must admit Calculus wasn't my forte in college but amidst the difficulty, I am proud to pass the subject. So, what's wrong with the kids of today? I met with several students who wanted to scratch off calculus in their curriculum because they didn't see the point of learning the dreaded subject. They were assembling this signature campaign to finally get rid of the subject. I simply told them that Calculus is important to go through, you may not remember all the formulas, computations and processes, but the habit of trying to figure things out will help you in the real world. I think apart from the obvious uses of Math subjects which is to compute and get the answers, there is an innate purpose of these things. If you're going to notice the proper format of solving these mathematical problems you'd be surprise that these same process could be used for other things as well. Let's say for example, in class we learn addition. There's a word-problem given and you are to get the answer. Let's say Maria was given $5.00 and she'd like to buy apples in the market costing $0.25, how many apples could she buy? The proper process for this is to first, look at the given. In this case the given are $5.00 (money that you have) and $0.25/piece of apple. Secondly, the required is 'How many apples could she buy'. Thirdly, what is the formula or technique that you can use? In this case we can use the Division Principles we learned in school. Then finally, we arrive at the answer. Given: $5.00 (money); $0.25 (cost per apple) Required: let x be the apples she could buy? Formula: Money / Cost = X Solution: $5.00 / $0.25 = 20 Answer: She could buy 20 apples. This is relatively easy, but we could well use the process in our real lives. Let's take this as an example problem. You have realized after leaving school that your pocket had a huge hole and your wallet fell. It's raining hard and you have no means of going home. What do you do? Given: You would start looking into other pockets and your bag for possible change. Required: Must find way to go home. Formula: Money = Home; So, where could you get money? Well, you can borrow from someone in school?; You could call home to see if someone's home and you can ask for money when you get there (take the cab), etc. Solution1: Retrace your steps hoping to find your wallet. Or go to the Lost and Found section to see if your wallet was surrendered there. Solution2: You look for your pockets, you find a dime, you call home, take cab, and pay when you get there. Solution3: Find a friend, borrow money or hitch a ride. Solution4: Wait for the rain to stop, then start walking home. Final Answer: Home. There are many ways that Math helps us. They have a lot of levels (Algebra, Trigonometry, Geometry, Calculus, Quantitative Analysis, Statistics, etc.) because we meet different types of problems in real life. The habit of solving those problems in school help us develop a keen mind so that when one has a problem the mind is organized enough to see the "given" "required" "solutions" "formula" and arrive at the "answer". What do you think? Have a great MyLot experience ahead!
2 people like this
2 responses
@factorial (977)
• Philippines
12 May 12
Wow! perfectly said my friend! I am a college math teacher and I teach calculus. For math majors, after calculus they have to take up differential equations (DE) which is harder than calculus because you have to use your previous knowledge in calculus so that you can solve problems in DE. The topic growth and decay is discussed thoroughly in DE (this is also discussed in calculus). Just an example of the importance of DE... bacteria increase exponentially... our mouth has about six billion bacteria when we wake up every morning! So to minimize the multiplication of bacteria we must brush our teeth after we wake up.
2 people like this
@laydee (12798)
• Philippines
13 May 12
Yeah! I absolutely am amazed by Math teachers and they get my respect! True it's difficult to understand most of these things, but I bet it's more difficult to teach them to us. hahaha.. But I do appreciate that they're teaching us how to handle our lives in the future. Thanks for the thoughts! Have a great MyLot experience ahead!
• Kiryat Ata, Israel
29 Sep 12
Hello there, factorial. Let me give you an example for differential equations. I need first, to give a simple background for people who don't know some facts : In simple motion with constant speed, moving steadily straight forward, the formulas of the acceleration and the speed and the distance are simple : the speed is constant , the acceleration is zero , and the distance is the speed multiplied by the time that passed. As the general definitions say, the acceleration is a derivative of the speed by the variable of time. The speed is the derivative of the distance by the variable of time. Let's assume now you are given that the acceleration of an object with a constant mass "M" has some connection to the distance it passes. Let's mark the acceleration as "A", the distance as "D". If we are given that, for example A=D*M/5 and we want to know the clear connection of the acceleration as a function of the time "t". So, here we need the differential equations knowledge to solve that problem. Without that knowledge we can only calculate the problem with given numbers, using many calculations and summarize them together. (It is complicated and a computer can do that task faster). We actually have F(t)=F''(t)*M/5 , what is F(t) itself ?
@stringer321 (5682)
• Kiryat Ata, Israel
29 Sep 12
This subject teaches us how to use the given information to produce more facts from it using logic, looking into the exact definition of things. For example : if given :(A)every tiger is a predator (B) all predators eat meat You can figure out from (A) and (B) that every tiger eats meat. Those simple rules of combining facts and make new ones are used when proving things. Sometimes a lot of information is given and we need to know how to use it. Calculus gives us a general way of thinking to make useful information to solve problems we got.