Yes, I know the usual reaction to calculus is to run away in fear ( it took a while for me to get over that instinct...) but lately ive been runing into it and there is no way around....
Im in college but the way my schedule is working out im not going to get to take any calc classes for another 2 or 3 semesters...
SO, im wondering if anyone here knows any good websites or resources for learning calc.
Thanks for any input
-Clif
try cliffs quickreview calculus
calculus.........isn't that a form of mathematics??
Yeah, I know what you mean, if you want any kind of science major, you will be bowing before the calculus beast. I did very well in calculus, but I didn't have a clue as to what I was doing other than just solving puzzles the way the book taught me to. But finally, I started to realize what it was all about - a way of mathematically dealing with things that are not constant but are always changing - velocity, filling reservoirs, varying amperage. Calculus gives you a set of fancy formulas to determine something when all the variables that affect that something are always changing.
Now I gotta tell you that in all of my 37 years as an engineer, I have never used calculus at work!
Just take it one step at a time - it's not a whole lot different from solving those soduku puzzles.
Bob G.
clif, send me an e-mail and i'll foward a web page to you , it may help . as i remember calculus goes up to calc. 5 , never had much luck using all that trying to pick up women in nite clubs in my younger days , so went back to welding . good luck . willie
Thank you all for replying, the websites are a big help, especily the one for the calculus phobe, thanks Lawrence
Ive heard that from other people who have had to take calc that they never once run into it in their job. That kinda sucks that youd have to learn it and never use it.
Still, better to know it and not need it than need it and not know it I suppose... and I guess itd be good to know if the computer is giving you the answer is right or not.
thanks again everyone, gotta go try and wake up and do something despite the snow...
-Clif
Calculus is fun, so is jamming sharp sticks under your fingernails. So feels so damn good when you stop.
I took it and passed, but I didn't appreciate it until I took mechanics in a physics course and thermalgoddamics. That's when I put it to work.
Good luck - Al
"thermalgoddamics" - LoL!
rofl.......havn't heard that one in several years. Glad to see I wasn't the only one to call it that.
Charles Welch
I don't use calculus much at work. But I used calculus to learn physics, and I used physics to learn statics, and I used statics and calculus both to learn strength of materials, and I used strength of materials as the foundation for all structural design and analysis. It's also used for thermodynamics (something else I don't use day to day but maybe someday I will). The thinking that goes into calculus is also essential for finite element analysis.
In short, it's the foundation for a lot of what an engineer does, even if we don't have to go back and revisit that foundation very often.
I skipped precalc way back in the day and jumped in without really understanding the foundation. Memorized a bunch of formulas. Remembered some, forgot others. Went away from engineering for a few years and when I came back I had to re-learn everything, so I picked up my old book and actually *read* it this time. Turns out that stuff actually makes sense. It deals with related rates of change (dimensions, time, etc.) and comes down to taking something hard to analyze and slicing it up into tiny bits that are easy to analyze (like approximating a weird-shaped blob as a stack of thin rectangular strips) and then adding it back together. It's a lot easier to derive the formula by thinking about the problem than to remember which equation got used with a similar example in the book.
What's your major?
Hg
Come next semester ill be in electrical construction and maitnence, so im not gonna need the calculus for that as much as where I want to go and what im studying on my own.
Im probibly going to stick with the construction and maintnence until I can get into the engineering side of electronics and electricity.
At some point im going to take some materials/mechinacial engineering courses, like stregnths of materials and such (theres alot of holes Modern Welding left there....)
The immediate reason im trying to learn calc is because im looking into how DC motors work and im trying to learn how to figure out where the magnetic feilds are around a given device like a motor or transformer, if that makes sense.
Over all I want to get into power generation and alternitive energy sources, so I know im going to be in school for a while and im really going to have to learn to like calc, but thats ok... itll be worth it in the end.
Thanks again
-Clif
Ooh. You'll need vector calculus. That's 2 or 3 semesters in.
Have you considered switching to an engineering track? Calculus and physics every semester for the first two years, and then you can apply it. The corresponding physics class for what you're interested in is Electricity & Magnetism, and that's typically 2nd semester of physics.
For your immediate purpose, though, you might want to pick up a no-calculus "baby physics" textbook; they may cover the basics of what you want to know, without getting into the derivations.
Hg
Ive wanted to get into the engineering side from the start, unfourtantaly my grades from high school were not good enough so ive been taking courses getting up to the prerequirements to TAKE the prerequirements for precalc.... so from the sounds of it I have a good 5 or 6 semesters to go.... on top of classes that are fall or spring olny that I have to wait a year for.....
oh the joys of learning...
Ive tried the "baby physics" books and theyre too general to cover the specifics that im looking into. Im studying some odd types of DC motors that use diffrent theroires of how electricity works, involving vaccume energy and curved space time, even more calculus of a higher level... fun stuff.
But first things first, I have to pass algebra 100 again (my arch enemy from HS) so i have to go study for my final tommrow.
Luckly its not as bad the second time around. :)
-Clif
I have old textbooks from the 1930's for physics & chemistry. They cover things that I can understand. I had a brief calculus course in high school, it wasn't presented in a way I could grasp it. Good luck on the algebra test.
clif , i'm going to foward a page in a few minutes . not the one i was looking for . went thru some of my old stuff today but too cold to dig out much did find old pictures of machine shop running lathes when i was 17 yrs old . will keep looking . good luck . willie
Well, the algebra test is over.... and i still cant shake that feeling of impending doom...
ive come to the conclusion that the individual units in algebra are a hell of a lot easier when your not trying to remember them all at the same time.
I ran out of time trying to remember all the diffrent little rules to graphing and simplifying and multiplying complex rational expressions (i think fractions should be banned from existance...).
it drives me nuts because if i were to take all the diffrent things on that test one at a time, id have no issues... but trying to switch gears from problem to problem doesnt work for me.
My brain is like a fussy old engine when it comes to math, it need some time to warm up and get to speed for a certant kind of problem.
So its fine if im doing a test about multiplying and deviding rational expressions, but then when I have to switch gears to graphing quadratic equations for 3 problems then shift again to radical expressions for 2 more, then to word problems, im in trouble.
Yeah, i know, study study study....
mabey ill get some of the base formulas tatooed on my wrist............
oh well, time to study for my philosiphy final, at least theres no fractions...
-Clif
Topic Chit-Chat & Non-Welding Discussion / Off-Topic Bar and Grill / I want to learn Calculus, can anyone help?
