Is there anything that could somehow make calculus funner to learn?

Question

It's difficult, confusing and a perfect cocktail for a headache. Can anyone suggest ways to make Calculus "funner" to learn?

Answer 1

Try Calculus for Dummies for some light-hearted but germane learning. For those pesky problems I always recommend using Schaum's Ouline Series: Calculus, Advanced Calculus, and Differential and Integral Calculus. I have a PhD in physics and still have problems with limits necessitating me pulling out my Schaum's that I have had for 40 years.

Answer 2

thatdepends on a lot of things,... are you the teacher or the student trying to learn more on your own?

Froma teacher's perspective, it is far easier to make such a fairly dry subject more fun and alive by talking about the dead people that helped to make our study possible (historical mathematical figures) and then by having board drills where the class is divided into teams & compete against one another completeing problems (some minor prize to be awarded later)

From a student perspective,... it becomes much more diffficult unless youarquite astudious. You must rely on self motivational factors, I am sure there are websites out there to make concepts easier (although perhaps not really funner to learn) *I saw a book once at Half-Price Books (I'm sure it is sold many other stores) called calculus and pizza... it was a different method of showing life examples of calculus concepts using cooking as itssource of inspiration -best to be done in a group I'd imagine.

Hope that helps any at all, best of luck.

Answer 3

Calculus can be very fun to learn and can, believe it or not, make perfect sense when you have a good teacher. If you are a university student, I would suggest trying to attend the lectures of another prof who is teaching the same course (just pick a prof who you think teaches well). If you're in high school and your teacher is bad, well, you're sort of out of luck on that one.

I agree with the study groups... talking about math helps people understand it, and if you understand something then you are far more likely to appreciate it.

In the meanwhile, I suggest checking out these online videos which I find sort of neat to go over some of the concepts:

http://www.calculus-help.com/funstuff/phobe.html

Hope this helps!

Answer 4

Hmmm, my teacher made it fun, but I'm guessing she was just really talented and imaginative.
How about study groups for doing homework together. You could even make them study "parties" where you study for a while and then watch TV as a reward. I've always liked contests; you could have speed contests for answering progressively difficult problems.

Answer 5

Not if you think funner is a word! Do your homework and it will be a lot more funner.

Answer 6

get a cute tutor!