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Calculus. Not arithmetic, calculus. Economics, even the basic stuff when taught at the college level, involves a couple of integrals. If you have a good, solid

by lmkg 15y ago

Calculus. Not arithmetic, calculus. Economics, even the basic stuff when taught at the college level, involves a couple of integrals. If you have a good, solid, intuitive grasp of what an integral is and what it represents, all this stuff is obvious. Obvious to the point that when the prof says "this is an integral" that will explain the concept better than the English definition. On the other hand, if integrals to you are voodoo witchcraft that puts numbers on a physics exam, then when you reach the same point in the lecture you'll be dealing with something extra you have to learn, rather than something that helps you learn. You'll be worse at economics because you can't switch back and forth between the concepts and the models. If someone gives you an equation, you won't be able to interpret it, and if someone defines a new concept, you won't be able to calculate it.

Homunculiheaded 15y ago
I missed Calc in hs/undergrad but need it much more later on (and felt pretty innumerate without it), I remember picking up the classic "Calculus Made Easy". I was immediately stunned by it's simple description of integral: "Now any fool can see that if x is considered as made up of a lot of little bits, each of which is called dx, if you add them all up together you get the sum of all the dx's (which is the same as the whole of x). The word 'integral' simply means 'the whole'" After reading this and more I asked a few people who I know knew calculus how they would explain an integral (figuring that they would give a similar definition and would delight in finding a book which explained it so clearly) and was shocked to discover how many could calculate it without really understanding what it was or at least being able to describe what it was in clear terms
- sliverstorm 15y ago
  I think of everything in the form of signals, so I define the integral as "the area under the curve".
- VladRussian 15y ago
  >simple description of integral: dual space to a linear vector space :)

by lmkg 15y ago

Homunculiheaded 15y ago

I missed Calc in hs/undergrad but need it much more later on (and felt pretty innumerate without it), I remember picking up the classic "Calculus Made Easy". I was immediately stunned by it's simple description of integral: "Now any fool can see that if x is considered as made up of a lot of little bits, each of which is called dx, if you add them all up together you get the sum of all the dx's (which is the same as the whole of x). The word 'integral' simply means 'the whole'" After reading this and more I asked a few people who I know knew calculus how they would explain an integral (figuring that they would give a similar definition and would delight in finding a book which explained it so clearly) and was shocked to discover how many could calculate it without really understanding what it was or at least being able to describe what it was in clear terms

sliverstorm 15y ago
I think of everything in the form of signals, so I define the integral as "the area under the curve".
VladRussian 15y ago
>simple description of integral: dual space to a linear vector space :)