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Calculus made easy (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 months ago by khannie@lemmy.world to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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"All the little bits"

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[-] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 8 points 4 months ago

but wouldn't "the sum of all the little bits of x" just be... x? Like what the fuck Calculus?! Speak plainly.

[-] UNY0N@lemmy.world 16 points 4 months ago

Yes, that's the whole point of calculus. It's useful for finding x if you don't have other easier ways to do so.

Here's an example of how dividing the area under a curve up into smaller and smaller bits helps to find a value for the area.

[-] ICastFist@programming.dev 6 points 4 months ago

I mean, the idea is simple enough to understand. The actual execution is what fucks idiots like me, especially when the exam is full of shit like integral sin(e ^ (x^2 * cos(e)) * tan(sqrt 5x)

[-] frezik@midwest.social 4 points 4 months ago

That's been an argument among educators. You can teach the basic concepts of Calculus to a fourth grader. What makes it difficult is rigor, but we don't necessarily need to teach rigor to fourth graders.