<p>this thread baffles me. i don’t think anyone who has ever actually had to apply calculus outside of calculus class (physics) would say calculus is easy. sure taking a derivative or integrating something is a piece of cake. but figuring out the integrand and the limits is what calculus is really about</p>
<p>@navymike</p>
<p>I actually disagree with that. Calculus made physics easier for me. Or, at least, enabled me to gain an understanding of physical concepts that I ordinarily wouldn’t have grasped. </p>
<p>Again - what I struggled with was not applying the calculus bit, but rather the actual geometry of the problem itself.</p>
<p>i didn’t say that calculus makes physics hard. I’m saying calculus is the hard part about physics. the fundamental concepts of physics are intuitive. the actual geometry IS the application of calculus. any idiot can take derivatives or integrate. using geometry and understanding WHY you take the derivative or integrate over something is the real idea of calculus.</p>
<p>i’ve gotten an A in every math class i’ve ever taken in my life. all of them were RIDICULOUSLY easy until i started calc 2. and MAYBE for some people out there algebra is harder than calculus but i honestly believe that if that is the case for you then you are really missing the point of calculus</p>
<p>@navymike that the problem limit and etc people who finished calc3 still don’t know what they are, my discrete professor says that we should swap our courses around so he can introduce students to these concepts, before they go into calculus. Since half the time when he covering it in discrete people who finish calc2 still don’t know what is going on.</p>
<p>i think chapter 7 and 8 for calc 2 were the most difficult or i would say tedious due to integration by part and if you had week trig/geo background it took you forever to do it.</p>
<p>@Navymike</p>
<p>Woah there, buddy. Calm down. I was just expressing my thoughts on the matter.</p>
<p>Anyway, my issue was not with knowing ‘why I am integrating’ over a certain volume, but more knowing how to properly relate angles/find relationships between functions/whatever.</p>
<p>I found Calc 2 to be fairly easy - a lot of straight computation. We did integrals over surfaces in Calc 1, and that was fun. Calc 3 was a lot more difficult for me to grok, but simultaneously very rewarding.</p>
<p>Just my two cents.</p>