4 ms·
Berkeley EECS grad. I didn't go the device physics route but I used calculus about twice in 4 years except in physics classes.
by CalChris 10y ago
Berkeley EECS grad. I didn't go the device physics route but I used calculus about twice in 4 years except in physics classes.
- supahfly_remix 10y agoCircuit analysis turns differential equations into algebra, so you might have been using calculus more than you realize.
- CalChris 10y agoYeah, I might have been guilty of some hyperbole. I remember a nasty integral on the Linear Systems midterm. It probably would have taken an hour or so if I didn't make any mistakes; but you could transform it and solve it as a linear equation in 10 seconds. That was the point of the class, that there area two kinds of problems, linear problems and problems you can't solve. I'm not in the least suggesting that an engineer shouldn't go through three semesters of Calculus, Linear Algebra+DiffEq and a Discrete Math course.
- dboreham 10y agoThat really makes no sense, unless the "EE" part was optional in your case.
- thatswrong0 10y agoThere are different "tracks", and some of them have very little EE (with way more CS focus). I think I only took two EE courses IIRC..
- baldfat 10y agoThe beauty of calculus is that you actually understand the Real World. For example I taught my daughter factions this way. Me: "These factions you see them? Now see these decimal points?" Her: "Yeah I hate factions they are stupid!" Me: "Factions are the only consistently real numbers below 1 and decimal points for the most part are made up numbers. 1/3 is 1/3 and never .3333." Her: "I always thought it was the otehr way around."
- fao_ 10y ago... Ohhhhhh. I wish you would teach me calculus =)
- fao_ 10y agoThis... might have come out wrong. What I meant was something along the lines of: You should teach, have you considered mentoring?
- yequalsx 10y agoThe first sentence in Your last statement in your conversation to your daughter is profoundly wrong. Your daughter was not in any way made to better understand fractions by this interaction. By the way, .3333 is a rational number and therefore equal to a fraction.
- thesimpsons1022 10y agois there a reason you call them factions and not fractions?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- gohrt 10y agoYour idea did not translate into English. I think you are trying to say that most decimals we see in real life are approximations, not exact measurements, while fractions are exact? This has nothing to do with calculus, though.
- BigJeffeRonaldo 10y agohttps://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~wtg10/decimals.html https://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~wtg10/decimals.html You can construct a complete ordered field from infinite decimals
- surrey-fringe 10y agoBerkeley's a really good university.
- eanzenberg 10y agolel
- wfo 10y agoBerkeley lets you skip learning asymptotic runtime analysis of algorithms if you're doing EECS? Weird. FYI: infinite sums are calculus.