After reading the prologue and chapter one of “The Calculus Diaries”, my perspective on calculus and its concepts have changed. “The Calculus Diaries” describes the history of calculus, such as who discovered it, when it was discovered, and how it can be used in everyday life. It starts out by describing the story of Archimedes, who invented devices to help fend off the Roman Empire from invading Syracuse. He was considered to be the first person to describe calculus concepts. The author describes that the two main concepts that make up calculus are the derivative and the integral. The author also describes his personal conflicts with calculus in the past and what it took for him to overcome his hatred for calculus and math in general. The …show more content…
The author uses the metaphor that the derivative and integral are like two ends of a hammer; one is for pulling out the nails, and the other is for pounding them in. The author also states that calculus is useful in many other things such as gas mileage, diet and exercise, economics, architecture, population growth and decline, and probabilities that you’ll hit it big in Vegas. The example is given of an outfielder in baseball. He must estimate where the ball is likely to land after the batter hits the ball. He is using calculus whether or not he knows it. He uses calculus because he is trying to predict the position of the ball with a very rough estimate of its speed. A really amazing fact was that worms do calculus. According to a biologist at the University of Oregon, worms have to use a very, very basic form of calculus to find where the nearest food is. This fact amazed me because I didn’t realize that one of the most basic life forms on Earth uses calculus to stay alive. It also made me realize that if worms can do calculus without the mental capacity of a human, why do humans complain about calculus so …show more content…
However, he lost the book and it wasn’t found again for ninety years. When it was found, it ended up being sold at auction for two million dollars. This little anecdote fascinated me because I didn’t realize how much a book about math could go for. It made sense because the book was ancient, but it was hard to believe that the book was worth two million dollars. In this book, the idea of curves is addressed by Archimedes. A problem was finding the area under a particular curve. A Greek astronomer and mathematician figured out that even though you couldn’t calculate an exact area under a curve, you could approximate by using a succession of rectangles under the curve. Then you just find the area of each rectangle, add them up, and you will have the approximate area of the space under the curve. This process became known as approximation. The use for finding the area under the curve was to find the integral, which had not yet been invented at that point. It was the first real step to defining calculus. The only problem with this method was that it could go on forever and ever. It would be impossible to draw an infinite amount of