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> It is really useful for so many things, and if you are good at understanding data and how to properly approximate things That sounds really great and all, bu
by themodelplumber 5y ago
> It is really useful for so many things, and if you are good at understanding data and how to properly approximate things
That sounds really great and all, but I do admit to wishing that depressing word "things" wasn't standing in the way of some accurate examples. I do understand you said calculus helps you to approximate, though.
- mrjangles 5y agoWhen something has happened to me once, I can always recount it. When something has happened to me a thousand times I can never think of a single example. I've always wondered if everyone gets this or if it's just me?
- DavidSJ 5y agoI think this is standard. It's the difference between a single episodic memory (formed by the hippocampus) and a learned statistical pattern (identified by the neocortex).
- themodelplumber 5y agoAre you pretty analytical? Could it be that each time hits slightly different, and your mind loves those deltas more than the cumulative effect?
- mrjangles 5y agoWell probably the other way round, I love the cumulative effect more. Mostly, I think I just have a bad memory and something needs to stand out to recall it. Regardless, I feel like the lack of anyone agreeing is confirmation of what I suspected: that this isn't a regular thing.
- DavidSJ 5y agoPerhaps the most famous example of discrete "things" being solved by calculus is the Prime Number Theorem, and more generally all of analytic number theory, which uses calculus (and often complex numbers) to answer questions about the integers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_number_theorem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_number_theorem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytic_number_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytic_number_theory