My five year old asked me what calculus is. (pixelfed.crimedad.work)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.crimedad.work/post/56031

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.crimedad.work/post/56030

cross-posted from: https://pixelfed.crimedad.work/p/crimedad/664838819785277759

My five year old asked me what calceulus is.

The context is that I'm an engineer and she wanted to know what I learned in engineering school, so I said calculus. (In my case, I only made it to pre-calc in highschool.) I swear I'm not the type of parent to try and push this stuff on her. I said it's about understanding how things change and then I tried to illustrate it. I'm open to suggestions on how I could answer her better.

#calculus #engineering #parenting

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[-] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

“Calculus is the horror that revolutionizes the way you perceive problems involving rates of change and you will wonder how you got along without it for so long if you put it off.”

[-] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

This is an excellent illustration imo. I would say the most essential concepts to wrap ones head around are rate of change and fundamental quantities. From there you can get to the relationships between position, velocity, acceleration and use these an analogy going forward. Awesome parenting by the way!

[-] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Thank you. It's a tough question to answer for her because, in comparison, the problems solved by addition, subtraction, and multiplication (into which she is only just dipping her toe) are mostly obvious to her. I'm having a hard time thinking of the obvious problems that calculus solves.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

C A L C E U L U S

[-] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago

I are engineer.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Choo choo!

this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2024

18 points (90.9% liked)

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