Why do smart people often study Calculus?

Question

Hi everyone, why do smart people often study Calculus? Why smartkids or smart peoplestudyCalculus in the Universities? Is Calculus important? Is it applicable to our daily life or in our world?


Because inCllege Calculus is a must take or required course, so people take it. But I doubt that they use it at work. Because most engineers or scientists today concentrate on design and developing softwares, so I don't think they use much Calculus.

Answer 1

Its not just smart people. Calculus is important and necessary for physics.

Answer 2

Engineering, astronomy, astrophysics, particle physics, and higher math all require calculus, its sort of the language of the sciences.
And while some engineers and scientists design and develop software, there are a lot more pure scientists that need to understand calculus and other higher math to make sense of the programs they get the IT folks to create, and to understand the science behind experimental and observational results.

So you may not think they need it (probably because you don't want to take it and are trying to find reasons why you shouldn't), but its a requirement for a reason.

Answer 3

I answered this yesterday, why are you asking again?

The concepts of calculus are important to nearly all kinds of engineering, even if you don't directly use the derivations. It is a fundamental tool for any physics work beyond the most basic. If you 'saw it was not so important', the problem is with your vision. True, 97% of the people in the world survive without knowing it. Perhaps even 60% of those who learn it, at at least a beginner level, never use it again. For the others, it ranges from useful to essential to fundamental. If you choose not to learn it while you can, you choose not to put a valuable tool into your toolbox. It may be an irreversible choice, since age makes it much harder to learn.

Answer 4

Calculus is the language of physics which is the foundation of engineering. Without calculus there would be no electronics, no tall buildings, no engines, no electricity, no nothing! Here's less obvious example: Ever wonder why a soda can is the shape it is? Probably not but its because its shape has the maximum volume to surface area ratio reducing the amount of aluminum needed and thus cost. How did we determine this? Volumetric integrals. My guess is you must of had a horrible teacher who didn't encourage you to apply calculus to the real world.

Answer 5

calculus is pretty important mathematics if the science or engineering that you practice deals with the physical world

For example by the physical world as applies to engineering - i mean the hardware and software that directly interacts with what can be called layer 1 in the OSI model. ie. not applications that run on a PC but the devices that make communications happen.

so for engineers who deal with wireless technologies, DSL lines, fiber optics...

Also those who deal with control systems, cruise control, engine management systems, flight controls, spacecraft..........

and and scientists who deal with chemical reactions (brewing, refining.....), biological reactions (epidemiology, bacterial growth....), physicists (almost everywhere..)

any where where rate of change is important - which is anywhere where the physical world is involved

Answer 6

Silly you. You answered your own question. You need math including calculus to program computers to perform calculations to solve problems. You program computers with algorithms which are math equations, silly.

I am a software engineer, I draw on my knowledge of all maths, including calculus to obtain relationships between the abstract and the concrete to get the results that I need in my computer programs.

Answer 7

Calculus is a mathematical method that finds the rate something changes in relationship to something else.
This is a powerful tool in economics, engineering, computer science, and many other areas. If you throw this aside then you are throwing away a useful tool.

Answer 8

Yes, we do. I'm getting a PhD in physics, and calculus is essential even in my research - you need to know where your equations came from and how to replicate similar problems. Calculus is absolutely necessary.

Answer 9

Calculus is the study of rates of change. It is used to calculate the landing on the moon when the moon is revolving around the earth and the earth is revolving around the sun. the point where the landing spot will be inrelation to the sun can be calculated.

Answer 10

Because they understand it !