Let's try and get 1,000,000 replies to this post

It's a way to calculate the incalculable.  For example, think of the logic problem that if you start at one end of a room and go halfway to the other side, and then go halfway of the remaining distance, and then go half the distance again, and then again, and again, and so forth, you never actually reach the other side.  But you get VERY close.  Using calculus, you can calculate the length of the room by summing the results of each halfway trip, as the distance to the opposing wall approaches (but never actually reaches) zero.  This seems silly when trying to measure a straight line, but it is the only way to calculate the area of an irregular curved shape or volume of a curved space, i.e., very complicated functions.  Essentially, you measure the area of a bunch of tiny squares (because squares are easy to calculate area) that fit within the shape, as the number of squares increases toward infinity and the area of each square approaches zero.  To calculate the volume of a space, you use cubes instead of squares.  And that's just BASIC calculus.  As I learned it, I couldn't help thinking that it was amazing how people figured this stuff out, and how remarkable and elegant the universe is, that this stuff really works. 
 
Cornfed Hick said:
As I learned it, I couldn't help thinking that it was amazing how people figured this stuff out, ...
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I agree, I have profound respect for those who came up with these methods - that are useful both for brain training and for describing the world around us  :)

Cornfed Hick said:
...  and how remarkable and elegant the universe is, that this stuff really works. 
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Now, science and mathematics work because it has been fitted to the world as scientists have seen it, not because the world in some miraculous way fits into a predefined set of scientific laws.
 
Same coffee every day.  made the same way, same machine, in a packet so the quantity of grains and water is the same.  Most days its fine enough.  every now and then its just awesome.

Weird.

Maybe those are the days that the universe is trying to make up for something.
 
I'm an idiot. My mom is going on excursion with her class (she's an elementary school teacher). She bought a new laptop yesterday and wanted me to rip some music from her audio CD's to it. Since her new laptop is a piece of shit without a CD-rom, I had to rip CD's on the other laptop. I spent two hours ripping CD's. Now she's gone, and I get an SMS: "Where's my music?". And then I realize I forgot to transfer the music to her laptop... :oops:
 
cfh's description of calculus only scratches the surface...

There's 2 types of calculus: differential and integral. What cfh is talking about is done with integral calculus. It's also just one of many applications.

Differential calculus is how you express change in math. Consider a moving object:

1. Let's say the object started at some point, so you can measure how far it has gone. In other words, you can use a number to indicate the object's position. Let's further say that you have some mathematical equation (using x as a term) which, given time x, tells you where the object is at that time. A position-over-time equation.

2. If you observe the change in position over time, what do you see? The speed, of course. Through the process of differential calculus, you can find the first derivative of the position equation, and that gives you the speed over time equation.

3. Change of speed over time is acceleration. You get this equation from the first derivative of the speed equation, which is then the second derivative of the position equation. You may be able to find deeper derivatives, but in this case this is the end of the real-world application. (Unless you know what change of accleration over time is, I don't.)


Have you ever wondered why all soda cans are the same size? The serving size was chosen first, and then calculus was used to find the can shape which holds that volume with the smallest amount of aluminum needed for the can.
 
The son had a good final track meet. Their 4x800 team had hoped to make state, but fell just a bit short. Good season!
 
Got to be at the airport at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow. We live 90 minutes away.
Sister-in-law lives just 10 minutes away from the airport though, so we were going to crash at her place.
She sends us an email yesterday: “Sorry we’re going away for the weekend, maybe you can come visit some other time.”
Maybe we can, but maybe we won’t since OUR FREAKING FAMILY DOESN”T TRUST US TO BE ALONE IN THEIR FREAKING HOUSE!
You couldn’t leave us a FREAKING KEY?
Guess who’s getting up at 3:30 in the morning?
 
SinisterMinisterX said:
cfh's description of calculus only scratches the surface...
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True, but since he didn't know anything about it, I tried to keep it simple.  :bigsmile:  Plus, it was late and I was in no mood to try to remember, let alone describe, vectors, differential equations, partials, matrices and the like.  It's been two decades since I thought about those subjects.
mckindog said:
Got to be at the airport at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow. We live 90 minutes away.
Sister-in-law lives just 10 minutes away from the airport though, so we were going to crash at her place.
She sends us an email yesterday: “Sorry we’re going away for the weekend, maybe you can come visit some other time.”
Maybe we can, but maybe we won’t since OUR FREAKING FAMILY DOESN”T TRUST US TO BE ALONE IN THEIR FREAKING HOUSE!
You couldn’t leave us a FREAKING KEY?
Guess who’s getting up at 3:30 in the morning?
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That totally sucks, but to be honest, I wouldn't want my brother-in-law's family staying in my house while I'm not home either!
 
Are you all ready for this?
Blondie-Rapture.jpg
 
SinisterMinisterX said:
(Unless you know what change of accleration over time is, I don't.)


Have you ever wondered why all soda cans are the same size? The serving size was chosen first, and then calculus was used to find the can shape which holds that volume with the smallest amount of aluminum needed for the can.
Click to expand...

Change of acceleration over time ... yeah, why isn't there an own word for that? Oh wait, there is one!

Personally I'm happy with calling it d[sup]3[/sup]x/dt[sup]3[/sup].

And the shape of the soda can is not the shape holding that volume using the least material - that would be a sphere  :P I can see, though, that a cylindrical shape is more practical, and given that it should be cylindrical, you are right  :D
 
Yes, I've seen it all right  :D

I guess the Scousers will claim that since the sign refers to the cities, iit should be 27-21 (adding Everton's and Man City's trophies). I've seen them clutching at smaller straws than that (like adding titles from the regional leagues played during WWII)  :D
 
Cornfed Hick said:
That totally sucks, but to be honest, I wouldn't want my brother-in-law's family staying in my house while I'm not home either!
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Yeah, but your brother -in-law is probably a little rough around the edges — into beer and heavy metal music and...never mind.  :smartarse:

Wish my daughter luck. She's playing in the 15-and-under volleyball nationals this weekend.
See you guys next week.
 
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