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Teaching myself calculus
04-29-2013, 10:18 AM
It's cool that you want to learn it and expand your mind. You probably won't have any practical use for it in real life though. I enjoyed my classes though.
My professor had us calculating the surface area of weird 3 dimensional shapes spinning through space at different speeds at each other. Then he had us figure out the shared area at different points in time as they collide. Crazy stuff. It'll blow your mind.
Team Nachos
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Teaching myself calculus
04-29-2013, 03:35 PM
Yeah, its the cool 3d stuff that makes calculus come alive.
Once you "get" what a double or triple integral is "doing", its just... really cool. I dunno why. I think because you get this kind of kinesthetic feel for this infinite sum of infinitesmal slivers of this abstract shape... makes my brain happy.
Or when you do integrals in polar co-ordinates, and you realise the integral is adding up these tiny elements of surface area, rotated around a point on the axis, and then that happening for every point on the axis and being summed along the shape... haha. It's like a weird brain massage.
It's that marrying of the hard analytical solution with the "aha!" of visualising the dynamics and the geometry. Something about that is cool.
Then again, I think lots of things can give you that same "aha!" kick. Visualising data flows/transforms in programming too. Also, human languages... once you've grafted a nice base of 1000+ words and basic grammar, and your brain starts just soaking up more and more meaning as you hear it spoken, it's delicious.
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Teaching myself calculus
04-29-2013, 05:35 PM
Personally, I think you should go for it. Who cares if it helps you get laid, you should try to improve yourself for your own sake anyway.
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Teaching myself calculus
04-29-2013, 06:06 PM
I just don't get the "improving yourself" value out of it unless you are going to implement it. When would you ever use calculus if you don't use it at work? It's not even fun. Learning a language is hard, but also mad rewarding and I find it fun to speak a second or third language with people. Learn guitar, do something that will be beneficial. It doesn't have to get you laid, it just has to be worth learning.
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Teaching myself calculus
04-29-2013, 06:17 PM
"... those who have a natural talent for calculation are generally quick-witted at every other kind of knowledge; and even the dull, if they have had an arithmetical training, although they may derive no other advantage from it, always become much quicker than they would have been."
Plato, The Republic
Noble pursuit by the OP. It is difficult for one to be considered intelligent if they aren't well versed or at least competent in mathematics.
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Teaching myself calculus
04-29-2013, 08:11 PM
If you want to impress people with math skills, then just learn how to do multiplications and divisions reallz fast
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Teaching myself calculus
05-09-2013, 01:59 AM
Quote: (04-29-2013 09:43 AM)RioNomad Wrote:
Learning calculus for fun? You motherfuckers sure know how to party.
+1 for IP above though, learning a language is a better use of your time unless you are dead set on calculus.
Working on my Portuguese too for a trip to Brazil.
Priorities
Better myself mentally>Better myself physically>Picking up girls
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Teaching myself calculus
05-10-2013, 05:51 PM
Quote: (04-28-2013 05:58 PM)Ace Wrote:
I'm just planning on learning for the fun of it.
Consider learning Discrete Mathematics instead. Start with elementary Set Theory and Logic. Learn about set operations, ordered pairs, cartesian products, relations, functions, etc. Then learn some Combinatorics: problems that are easy to state, but sometimes very hard. Graph Theory, for example, can be a lot of fun.
"The great secret of happiness in love is to be glad that the other fellow married her." – H.L. Mencken
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Teaching myself calculus
07-01-2013, 01:05 PM
Is anyone good at calculus on this forum? I urgently need help with some exams, I'll pay for help. Please PM me.
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Teaching myself calculus
07-01-2013, 10:38 PM
learn statistics instead, more practical
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Teaching myself calculus
07-02-2013, 12:38 AM
Quote: (07-01-2013 01:05 PM)InternetMarketer Wrote:
Is anyone good at calculus on this forum? I urgently need help with some exams, I'll pay for help. Please PM me.
what kind of money we talking?
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Teaching myself calculus
12-23-2015, 12:16 PM
I am not big into all the online stuff. Does anyone have a recommendation to an introductory text on calculus? Preferably an easy read but also rigorous.
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Teaching myself calculus
12-23-2015, 12:40 PM
^ Storm, thanks. I've heard good things about the Spivak text. Do you think it's doable for someone with no calc experience?
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Teaching myself calculus
12-23-2015, 01:04 PM
MIT's Gilbert Strang also taught Calculus and the lecture videos are available online, courtesy of MIT OCW:
Quote:Quote:
Highlights of Calculus
by MIT OpenCourseWare
18 videos
121,128 views
Last updated on Jul 1, 2014
Highlights of Calculus is a series of short videos that introduces the basic ideas of calculus — how it works and why it is important. The intended audience is high school students, college students, or anyone who might need help understanding the subject.
In addition to the videos, there are summary slides and practice problems complete with an audio narration by Professor Strang. You can find these resources to the right of each video
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...EA64E2C318
"The great secret of happiness in love is to be glad that the other fellow married her." – H.L. Mencken
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Teaching myself calculus
12-23-2015, 02:04 PM
Buying school books for calculus is good, because it's really simplified and has lots of good questions which progress you through the chapters.