re-learn calculus

It took a lot of my free time but in the end it helped me (and will help me) more than I knew it would when I started.

So, I came to college to major in Engineering. When that didn’t work out, I dropped science and math all together. Now I really regret that. I loved chemistry, biology, math, etc. in high school. Now, I can’t remember a lick of calc and I am going to attempt to retake general chem in the fall. But calculus was my passion, I could spend hour after hour doing math, helping others with math, etc. I plan on relearning calculus on my own, but I am worried that I won’t remember enough basic math to relearn calculus. I also fear that if I do manage to relearn calculus I & II while retaking chem, I might turn my back on English and want to go back to something more math and science-ish. Since I am going to be graduating in a year with an English degree, this would be rather inconvenient. Who knows, I might end up going back to school for medicine or engineering. Why did I abandon my passion? Although, I love english too. I feel like this is the curse of someone who can pass a class in any topic with relative ease. Too many choices makes choosing difficult.

I like math and numbers and theories. They are puzzles that magically work. It’s a beautiful thing. Someday I’ll go back and learn it all again.

I’m reading Apostol’s Calculus and so far it’s pretty good, if difficult to follow at times.

Calculus ruined my 4.0 GPA in high school. After a year of college calculus, I understand it fairly well. But why? I still don’t know what I’m going to do with it.

This will be a necessity if I seriously plan on returning to school. It’s only been 18 years since I was in University. How much could I have forgotten… lol

...you might consider is “A Tour of the Calculus” by DAVID BERLINSKI. While the author can be a bit pompus at times, the book is a quite readable presentaion of some the concepts found in calculus. Hmmm, I know this book must be on my bookshelf somewhere….

So, after seeing some good reviews on Amazon, I picked up Dec 31, 2004, 10:49AM PST | 1 cheer | 3 comments