When is Calculus used in Med school?
468037
I think I answered your question before...but not sure if you got it, so I'll write it here...\n\nI'm pre-med, and I've taken up through Calc II. A lot of pre-med students do that. However, I think that being pre-med only requires Pre-calc, or at most, Calc I. However, it also depends on your major. Chem majors need more calc than bio majors do...but don't worry. You have all of college to get that stuff in :)\n\nRegarding calc in med school, I don't know if you actually need it there, but I was told that math majors actually do the best on the MCAT because the process of thinking you need to do well as a math major is very similar to the process of thinking you need to succeed on the MCAT. Hope that helps!
676403
The theorems of multivariable calculus depend directly on the theorems of linear algebra. Higher dimensional calculus depends on your knowing the properties of linear transformations, as the tools of calculus mostly reduce nonlinear forms to local linear transformations. Without linear algebra, there is no inverse function theorem or implicit function theorem, much less the ability to tell saddle points, the ability to solve nonlinear differential equations, etc. They are inseparable.
492355
Check out Stewart's Calculus(refer to the first link). If you are looking for something  more rigorous refer to Apostol's Calculus(refer to second link).
929142
In electronics, which is my specialty, determining the dynamic response of a circuit (with respect to time or with respect to frequency) often requires the use of differential and integral calculus.  In structural engineering, designing buildings or bridges to make them strong and earthquake resistant also requires calculus.  Certainly physics and mechanics rely heavily upon calculus.  I'm not sure about chemistry or biology.
763507
Calculus is a pure mathematical theory. It has 2 main applications 1 to enable calculation of the gradiant of a curve at any point on the curve, this gives you rate of change of x with respect to y. e.g. if y axis was metres and x axis was seconds this would give you the rate of change of distance with respect to time in m/s i.e. speed.\n\nIf you want to understand differentiation, I suggest you google differentiton from first principles.\n\nThis is one of the physical applications of differentiation.\n\nThe other application is to take a curve and calculate the area underneath it between two points on the curve. Say you have a curve where the y axis is speed in m/s and the x axis is time in seconds. Then the area under the curve would give you the distance travelled between points x=m and x=n. So if you integrate a velocity vs time formula you get distance travelled. This is an application of integration. To understand integration google "simpsons rule".\n\nThere are many more applications of this in physics relating to rate of change & intergration \n\ne.g Electical current is the rate of change of voltage with respect to resistance. dv/dr\n\ne.g. Power in an electical circuit is the integral of current (I) w.r.t to resistance dr
645
The farthest I went was Calculus II in college.  Do I use advanced calculus in my everyday life?  No.  \n\nHowever, it's not the idea of using it in everyday life, it's the problem solving skills you gain that make you smarter.  It helps to show you there are many ways to approach problems and helps you choose the best way to try solving them.  Don't give up on difficult subjects like these in school.  While you may not use the concepts day to day, you'll use problems solving skills every day for the rest of your life.
142544
I like Calculus. You learn how to think logically in order to solve problems.  Plus, in Calculus, you'll learn why some things in math are the way they are. For example, have you ever wondered why the area of a circle is pi times the radius squared? Well, in Calculus you'll learn why.
21809
It's grammatical.  'Calculus' in the sense we know it derives from 'Calaculus' (which means the method of calculation), which in turn is derived from the original sense of 'calculus'.\n\nThus we say 'The Calculus', as we would 'the method of calculation' (here referring to calculating tangents, areas, limits, or what have you).  \n\nOf course, The Calculus now tends to refer to the rough number crunching, technique, and general monkey work of the subject, whereas Analysis (or Analysis of the Infinite, if you're feeling pompous) is used to signify the deeper maths of it all.
174633
It isn't necessarily the daily use of mathematics which pediatricians require, it is the demanding intellectual challenges and problem solving skills which Medical School and the process of becoming a medical doctor and the act of practicing medicine itself which requires the mental aptitude developed in part by the study of mathematics. \n\nRemember, doctors are scientists first. It is impossible to become a doctor without a strong backgroud in mathematics.
424307
I started writing this out myself, and I found a great answer, much better than any I could give you. Here are a few quotes, and the whole article is at the URL noted in the sources.\n\n"The importance of calculus is that most of the laws of science do not provide direct information about the values of variables which can be directly measured. In other words, if you are lost, then physics will not help you find your way home, because there are no laws of physics that provide direct information about position ... many of the most important principles in science are rules for the way variables change. For instance, physics tells you how velocity will change in various situations -- i.e. it tells you about acceleration.\n\nThis is why it's important to have a mathematical way of talking about change. That's why you see the concept of the derivative used throughout science -- in physics, chemistry, biology, economics, even psychology. \n\n...\n\nThe primary importance of calculus in the hard sciences is that it provides a language, a conceptual framework for describing relationships that would be difficult to discuss in any other language.\n\nWhat is worthwhile for students to gain from a calculus course is the ability to read books that use the language of calculus and, at least to some extent, follow the derivations in those books. Unfortunately, being being proficient at the sort of [garbage] skills required to get a good grade in a calculus course is not a lot of help in this respect.\n\nI tell my calculus students that their grades are probably not a very good indicator of being able to do well in future courses. What's more important is whether they make the effort to follow the reasoning given in class and in the text. The most important part of the course (at least when I teach it) is the part that's never tested on."\n\nI *like* this guy.
392380
All kinds of simple, easy calculus examples in real life (especially engineering!).  These depend on the level of math knowledge, but for University Calc. II:\n\nOptimization: (i.e. give a box with a volume, find minimum surface area) or (here's a certain amount of fencing, make the largest enclosure you can).  (Lagrangian Multipliers? did I even spell that right?  We looked at those when there are a lot of constraints on the problem (i.e. relationship between box dimensions must follow .....).\n\nForces: for example, average fluid pressure on a dam, given a function of distributed force, or fluid pressure on a submerged object. (Can be done in single or multiple integrals).\n\nRelated Rates:  i.e. two cars approach at right angles, different speeds, when will they meet.  Or, dropping a ball near a light source, find speed of shadow as function of angle made with light source, distance from ground, etc.  Differetial calculus example.\n\nArea and Volume: Double and triple integrals to find the volumes and areas of shapes. (Or single integrals, volumes of revolution, areas from curve to axis, if multi-variable calculus not covered).\n\nCurve Fitting: really good real-life use, take a set of data points from an experiment, select a curve type (i.e. quadratic, cubic, straight line, logarithmic, etc) and use minimization to get the best curve fit (set up an equation for the residuals, sum of (function) - (data point), and take derivatives with respect to each unknown coefficient in the function, set all derivatives equal to zero, solve simulatneously for curve coefficients. Now we can predict the outcome of the experiment at intermediate values, (as long as the curve fit is good).\n\nCentre of Mass, Centroids, etc: Find the balancing point on certain objects or groups of objects using integration. Can be single or multiple integrals, depending on complexity of shape.\n\nFields:  i.e. graviational fields, electrical fields, etc.  Or make up some fields.  Integration to find work required by a particle to traverse a path through some field.  Conservative and non-conservative fields.  Can use as an example of energy needed to move satellites along paths (equations) in space near earth's gravity, an electron through an electrical field, etc.  I guess some of these examples the field is conservative and it becomes kinda trivial if you work with end points, but don't have to.\n\nThese are some of the applications we used in our Calculus II-type course.  The hardest part is always setting the problem up, not solving, (which makes for good application problems I guess).  If multi-variable calculus isn't covered yet, then some of these examples would be kinda rough (i.e. fields).  Anyway, hope these are useful. \n\nCheers,
815232
Calculus is a central branch of mathematics. The word stems from the nascent development of mathematics: the early Greeks used pebbles arranged in patterns to learn arithmetic and geometry, and the Latin word for "pebble" is "calculus."\n\nCalculus is built on two major complementary ideas, both of which rely critically on the concept of limits. The first is differential calculus, which is concerned with the instantaneous rate of change of quantities with respect to other quantities, or more precisely, the local behavior of functions. This can be illustrated by the slope of a function's graph. The second is integral calculus, which studies the accumulation of quantities, such as areas under a curve, linear distance traveled, or volume displaced. These two processes act inversely to each other, as shown by the fundamental theorem of calculus.\n\nExamples of typical differential calculus problems include:\n\nfinding the acceleration and velocity of a free-falling body at a particular moment. \nfinding the optimal number of units a company should produce to maximize its profit. \nExamples of integral calculus problems include:\n\nfinding areas and volumes \nfinding the amount of a liquid pumped by a pump with a set power input but varying conditions of pumping losses and pressure \nfinding the amount of parking lot plowed by a snowplow of given power with varying rates of snowfall.
619394
Math is needed for lots of things!\nDo your homework!\n\nhttp://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.why.math.html\nThere are actually thousands of different jobs that require some knowledge of mathematics. Here are more than 30 firsthand accounts from Mathematicians at Work telling what some college math majors are doing, from an Air Traffic Control Systems Analyst and a Lawyer to a Data Capture Facility Troubleshooter on the Hubble space telescope.\n\nExactly How Is Math Used In Technology?, from the Mathematics Department of the British Columbia Institute of Technology, provides examples of math uses for biomedical engineering, food technology, building technology, chemical sciences, civil and structural engineering, graphics and computer-aided drawing (CAD), electronics, environmental health, mechanical engineering, mining technology, nuclear medicine, occupational health, petroleum technology, prosthetics, forestry and wildlife, robotics, and surveying.
51921
well i am going to relate this to music, why are there so many different types of instruments, they all make a different sound, all of the different types of mathematics have different purposes.  Geometry begins to define properties of the world around us, Algebra begins to get us used to workign with variables and the unknown.  Calculus is used to interpret the world around us.  There are many other types too, examples are statistics, they can be anything from sports highlights, what we need to do to fix an intersection to decrease traffic backup.  This is a very brief explaination, but i hope it helps!
711470
Try here:/\n\nhttp://archives.math.utk.edu/visual.calculus/
1179807
I'm afraid I don't have a web site for you off the top of my head, but I would offer this (probably controversial) advice:  try to learn calculus from a physicist instead of a mathematician.  Physics has many great applications for calculus (Newton invented it to do some physics, after all) and I think it is easier to learn based upon the applications.\n\nMathematicians fuss too much about subtleties right away and I think they get in the way of the basic ideas of derivatives beng rates of change and integrals as ways of simply adding things up.
478650
Quoting from Wikipedia:\n\n"Calculus started making great strides in Europe towards the end of the early modern period and into the first years of the eighteenth century. This was a time of major innovation in Europe, making accessible answers to old questions. Calculus provided a new method in mathematical physics. Several mathematicians contributed to this breakthrough, notably John Wallis and Isaac Barrow. James Gregory proved a special case of the second fundamental theorem of calculus in 1668. In Japan at around this time, Seki Kowa also made some major discoveries in integral calculus.\n\nLeibniz and Newton pulled these ideas together into a coherent whole and they are usually credited with the probably independent and nearly simultaneous "invention" of calculus. Newton was the first to apply calculus to general physics and Leibniz developed much of the notation used in calculus today; he often spent days determining appropriate symbols for concepts. It was generations after Newton and Leibniz that Cauchy, Riemann, and other mathematicians finally put calculus on a rigorous basis, with the definition of the limit, and the formal definition of the Riemann integral."