This Is The Calculus They Won’t Teach You

There is an inspiring story hidden behind the formulas and word problems of single-variable calculus – a story that should be told in every introductory calculus course, but usually isn’t.

Regardless of if you’ve taken a few calculus courses before or are just beginning your study of calculus, the following video aims to give a taste of the insights that can be gained from learning about the history and philosophy behind the key ideas of this field of math.

Infinity is a common concept in math but difficult to understand by the ordinary person. The first element broken down in the video is what calculus actually is, as well as introducing the history of math as we know it. Math started in Ancient Greece with geometry since the way we depict mathematical equations now wasn’t used then. The video also explains integration and integrals used in calculus.

Archimedes created the idea that a rectangle could be the same size as a circle and produced the proof to this hypothesis after the statement was made. Math is commonly about finding “moral” solutions to problem or solutions that should be right and the coming up with a formal proof to justify it. Archimedes wrote about this very way of thinking in The Method and this is still recognized today.

yogaesoteric
June 20, 2023