[CS-FSLUG] Calculus

[Yama Ploskonka]

David Aikema wrote:
<snip>
> 
> With degrees in French Lang & Lit, and certification as an elementary
> school teacher, I'm unsurprised that you speak of not having used
> calculus outside of school.

ouch!

I've been cast as a humanist!  my, that hurts... :-)

BTW, you're the first person alive I've come across that says has used 
calculus.  I've come across quite a few people in my life, used to roam 
academia for fun and profit, got into a bit of research, did 3D computer 
modelling and on, never beyond trig.  But,

You're my first!!!  :-)

Yet, I've known zillions of people who are utterly unable to balance 
their spending, who do the "one hand doesn't know what the other hand 
does" not out of obedience to Scripture but out of ignorance.   Yet 
Calculus is a prerequisite to pretty much anything in academia (and only 
there, AFAIK), and while accountability (in money and actions) is not.

>> BTW, what more precisely have you used calculus for?
> 
> In the business world, for stuff like waveform analysis.

I must confess my ignorance on that area.  I am curious about what, more 
precisely.  I really want to know of at least one single instance of 
real-life use of Calculus, but I am afraid this might start to be 
getting off topic

> The skills that you'll use all depend on what sort of field you want
> to go into.  I also spent some time working in a physics research lab
> - academia outside the classroom - and there you're also not going to
> get very far without a lot of mathematics.  You might not need
> calculus in the arts, but its important to almost anything in the
> sciences.
> 
> Dave

Hmm, would first have to define what "science" is.  If "science" is what 
is done with calculus, I concede the point, check and mate.

If science is finding out data about data, and data is U, i.e. Creation 
and Man's delving and musings on it, then the use and the parts that 
require Calculus is so minuscule as to be less than a rounding error.

Yes, I will admit that for some very specific areas it has been said (I 
have no evidence yet beyond the official intelligenzia, and some FOAF) 
that calculus is vital, that it makes all the difference.  Yet 
apparently that also involves nuclear or aerospace physics, which 
engages such a small portion of humanity as to be again just a glitch.

Yet you cannot get your degree unless you pass Calculus.  I can say with 
full (empirical) confidence that 99.9 % of more of _successful_ PhDs 
will never again see Calculus, until the day their chil is struggling 
with homework, and most will wisely pretend they are busy.

The proportion of Calculus users in the general population makes people 
like you a true special class, which doesn't mean I do not respect you. 
  It's just that those who decide those things should know we won't all 
be that.  Some of us will simply teach school (oh my, that will leave a 
bruise mark... )

I'm sorry, this is one of my pet peeves, and it has to do with how the 
round bottle has to be squeezed in the square hole, because Microsoft 
says so.

One of the reasons I stand so staunchilly behind Libre (justifying this 
is still on-topic :-)) is because, maybe, it opens the doors for people 
following their Talents, and fulfilling them, as God intended.  Not 
because a sinful Harvard degree is worth more in the marketplace than a 
Bob Jones U one.  If I had my way, both would be worth zero, and people 
would be appreciated (the worker gets his wages) out of what they 
actually do - for others.  And Libre software and Libre knowledge would 
be available to all.  (and Libre music for worship and joy)

Yet, Nate, work on your Calculus.  In _THIS_ world, you _NEED_ it.
I managed, by the grace of God, and after many tries.

I was still placing cans on shelves in a grocery store, with 3 degrees 
and 39 years old, basically because those degrees didn't mean anything.
My wife makes twice as much as I do - in part because she does have a 
degree that required Calculus and completed it (not that she ever uses 
Calculus...).  I gave up.

Yama