I’m a chemical engineer and I now better understand calculus slightly better from this post. I did a whole lot of “okkayyy
…let’s just stick to the process and wait for this whole thing to blow over”
I know what they were asking me to do but I never really fully understood everything.
When I started algebra in something like 5th grade I had a huge issue with f(x) and the best answer my teacher gave me was that “the equation is a function of x” and couldn’t explain it differently and I couldn’t get over the fact that we are not multiplying whatever f is by X. “If we’re going to set precedent with notation at least be fucking consistent” - 5th grade me probably
I also studied chemical engineering, and throughout high school and university that was exactly it. Calculus was a kind of magic, and you just had to learn all the spells.
With this book I finally understood why the derivative of x^2 is 2x.
I would’ve absolutely paid more attention in maths if the learning material was this utterly contemptuous of “ordinary mathematicians” haha
also full Project Gutenberg text is here https://calculusmadeeasy.org/, thanks for sharing!
I’m a chemical engineer and I now better understand calculus slightly better from this post. I did a whole lot of “okkayyy …let’s just stick to the process and wait for this whole thing to blow over”
I know what they were asking me to do but I never really fully understood everything.
This is such a classic engineer brain solution to the problem. It just warms my heart.
When I started algebra in something like 5th grade I had a huge issue with f(x) and the best answer my teacher gave me was that “the equation is a function of x” and couldn’t explain it differently and I couldn’t get over the fact that we are not multiplying whatever f is by X. “If we’re going to set precedent with notation at least be fucking consistent” - 5th grade me probably
I also studied chemical engineering, and throughout high school and university that was exactly it. Calculus was a kind of magic, and you just had to learn all the spells.
With this book I finally understood why the derivative of x^2 is 2x.
I tried to figure it out myself back in high school but the best I came up with is X^2 -->2x because it just fucking does.
https://www.calculusmadeeasy.org/4.html
Ok I’m no mathematician but I’ll still can’t see why d(x^2) = 2x.
This exact explanation is in the book: https://calculusmadeeasy.org/4.html