Calculus? I could work out the area of a circle or the volume of a sphere and if I knew two interior angles of a triangle I could work out the third. I could even work out averages and just about managed simultaneous equations - though I never really understood what use they were - but calculus? In my defence, as far as I was concerned NOBODY at WHS ever explained what it was FOR - what USEFUL problem you could solve with it. Michael Girling - who in 4A in 1962 had the thankless task of trying to teach me maths - plunged straight into integration and differentiation and the space below curves (What on EARTH is the point of knowing THAT?), but it was for me all meaningless. I had never before at school felt such a total failure. In 5A four of us dunces sat at the back of the class doing old "O" Level papers for a year while the rest prepared for "S" Level maths .....
I am working on little history sheets and prepared one as seen below on calculus. I GOOGLED "SIMPLE EXPLANATION OF CALCULUS" - and found nothing that corresponded to those four words. Does this mean I am stupid, or is it really true that some people simply "can't do maths"? I need to see a REAL, PRACTICAL PROBLEM and how it is solved by calculus. Surely that can't be diffcult? But I haven't found it yet. Perhaps someone "out there" can help? I quite fancy understanding the point and basics of calculus before I die! |