Anyone taking Calc 3? I thought it was suppose to be easier than Calc 1 + 2. I rather deal with numbers and formulas then 3-D shapes and stuff.

Anyone using Stewart 4th Edition Calculus by any chance? Is the study guide worth it?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by cali99boy
[B]Anyone taking Calc 3?

 

My question is, what the hell do you guys use Calc for on a daily basis, I mean, routine things...

 

Its from Chapter 13-17.

It starts with 3-D Coordinates/Vectors and then pretty much move forward linearly.

Chapter 13 - Vectors and the Geometry of Space
Chapter 14 - Vector Functions
Chapter 15- Partial Derivatives
Chapter 16 - Multiple Integrals
Chapter 17 - Vector Calculus

 

Well, in our class back in the day, it had this chart entitle "When are we ever going to use this?" and then a list of available careers that may involve Calculus in one of their divisions.. but I guess it just helps with problem-solving skills, etc etc..

 

without calculus, many of the formulas that you and i use as shortcuts today for calculating any number of things would not exist.

also, you never know when you'll encounter something that may just require a simple bit of calculus. wouldn't you feel like a goof if the answer to some problem that's holding you back from finishing a project lies in a simple mathematical calculation and you couldn't do the math for it?

 

I just finished computing the mean and variance of a Bayesian estimate for the probability of success in a Bernoulli distribution based on the result of a series of trials; think of it as trying to estimate the bias in a coin by flipping it several times and noting the number of heads and tails.

What good is this, you ask? The short answer is that it figures into the decision of how to bet on sporting events: which team to choose and how much to wager. In another week or so I'll have a website open to the public that will provide this advice. So far this season this advice would have allowed you to quadruple your money.

 

I see, but I still don't think the reward for the average person is worth the effort, Calc is a waste of time if you ask me, like learning DOS.

Just my .02

 

No more so than, say, learning art history, but arguably no less so, too. One reason to study art is to appreciate beauty; that's one reason to study calculus.

In the Summer when I was 16 I was helping my dad work on the car, and we were adding coolant to the radiator we'd just flushed; we were using a large, blue, plastic funnel. He pointed out that when the coolant is up near the top of the funnel the level drops slowly, but near the bottom of the funnel it drops more quickly. That was sensible to me: the top is wider so the same volume requires less thickness. Then he told me that if I knew calculus I could figure out exactly how fast the level was dropping at any point in the funnel.

I got his college calculus book from the bookshelf and read it that Summer. In the Fall I started college and passed the first year of calculus by taking two exams; I had to enroll in third semester calculus because the school policy wouldn't allow me to challenge more than two classes in a sequence.