Reading list

[alamein]

Am I the only one who lives and dies with world war two books? awesome BArbarossa by alan cooke, rommel by ron lewin, panzer leader by heinz guderian??? I think alan cooke also wrote another really good book I liked called stalingrad…?? I also love to read junk novels. ra salvatore, loius lamore ect.

but for young adults I think they need the variety we were all forced to endure:
of mice and men
romeo and juleit, hamlet and ottello
fahrenheit 454
1984
and I had to read ernest hemmingways biography, he was a very interseting man, although I never actually liked the old man and the sea, or whatever it was we were forced to read.

I think this variety is good, so that you can make your own descisions about what you think of the world. I had this variety and I think the wiorld still sucks, so who can say otherwise? although at the time it did embed a liberal streak that it took several years of hard labor to rid me of.

[StrongBad1988]

@alamein:

although at the time it did embed a liberal streak that it took several years of hard labor to rid me of.

ewwwwww don’t want that to happen to me. :x

[TG Moses VI]

Falk, what the hell are diferential equations?

What math do you take? :-? It’s mostly taken from calc…

Am I the only one who lives and dies with world war two books? awesome BArbarossa by alan cooke, rommel by ron lewin, panzer leader by heinz guderian??? I think alan cooke also wrote another really good book I liked called stalingrad…?? I also love to read junk novels. ra salvatore, loius lamore ect.

That would be me. :)
I always find a good read in Seven Days in January, With our Backs to Berlin, and Hitler’s Invasion of Russia.

[yourbuttocks]

I am taking Geometry/Trigonometry (SIN and COS, what joy)

[TG Moses VI]

Ha, you’ll see plenty of diff. equations once you start taking calc, which is quite honestly easy compared to some of the other stuff ahead. I hate graphing! :x

[yourbuttocks]

Higher math is so useless.

I still believe Newton invented Calculus simply to feel superior to everyone else.

[cystic crypt]

@yourbuttocks:

Higher math is so useless.

I still believe Newton invented Calculus simply to feel superior to everyone else.

man, give your head a shake.
Not only does it help explain Physics, but it describes much in Chemistry, and it is essential in economics.

[TG Moses VI]

You’re going to need it if you want a career in any type of engineering… :-?

[yourbuttocks]

Calculus doesn’t apply to economics, does it? If it does, please give me an example because I don’t understand.

Is Calculus going to help me land a new account? Is it going to help me play trivial pursuit? Is it going to help me construct a good argument, or help me keep track of my time, or help me give a speech? Or is it going to help me in Calculus class and Physics class…

[Guest]

@yourbuttocks:

Falk, what the hell are diferential equations?

Differential equatiosn are (1) Equations that have a (2) differential operator in there.

@TG:

Ha, you’ll see plenty of diff. equations once you start taking calc, which is quite honestly easy compared to some of the other stuff ahead. I hate graphing! :x

In the beginning these diff Eq. are pretty simple, but you can think of much more complex forms that will come later. In the start you will differentiate some functions (which are very simple diff equations), later you will have equations with functions as “variables”, and these functions themselves can be of more than one variable… then it gets a bit nasty, but at some stage you will notice that there is a nice “receipe” to solve many of them.
The importance of the exponential function will then be stressed, as it is part of most solutions to Diff Equations.

[Guest]

@yourbuttocks:

Higher math is so useless.

I still believe Newton invented Calculus simply to feel superior to everyone else.

Well, it was Newton and Leibniz who invented it, and they did it because it was time for it. To solve many of the problems they had, they just needed it.

@yourbuttocks:

Calculus doesn’t apply to economics, does it? If it does, please give me an example because I don’t understand.

Ok, very simple:
A product has a linearly rising “cost”-function (of produced items), and a quadratically declining “asset”-function (of sold items)… which is the best
number to be produced and at what price will they be sold?
True, the calculus you need is not that hard for economy… unless you go into macroeconomics, there it gets interesting (but still not enough understood with oversimplified models)… but for an MBA i do not see that you need more than a bit of calculus, some common sense, and the ability to talk of simple things in a very complicated way, so that others think it is some kind of “science”…

Is Calculus going to help me land a new account? Is it going to help me play trivial pursuit? Is it going to help me construct a good argument, or help me keep track of my time, or help me give a speech? Or is it going to help me in Calculus class and Physics class…

It is not helping you with a new account; it can help you win trivial pursuit if the right questions come up; it will help you in an argument, as it trains your logic; it can help you plan your time; it won’t necessarily help you with a speech; but it will help you in any math or science class.
Plus: You need to understand the concept of exponential growth to be a successful manager…. especially that exponential growth cannot be sustained… if you see that contradiction (which your shareholders don’t see), you also see how to blind them and tell them what they want to hear without letting them interfere with what has to be done :) :)

[cystic crypt]

Brilliantly put F_alk.
When i was in sales i used calculus (loosely) to determine rates of growth, changes in rates of growth, etc. and applied that knowledge etc. in discussions with my boss over why i deserved a raise. Of course this did not “require” calculus, however it did help hone my mind to looking at these things in this way.
The thing is, one can look at chemistry and physics the same way. I felt bad for a woman who did not go into medicine as she was allergic to the materials in the chem lab. Why is this a factor? What do i need to know about basic intro chem and physics for medicine? Well, a little bit - pH’s and haemodynamics, etc. But these may be taught without the use of these tedious courses no? The thing is these allow one to study/learn more advanced sciences - biochemistry etc. So although not everyone will find calculus useful in everyday life, it is handy for advancing in university to more advanced physics courses (as well as engineering) which would grossly affect your ability to, say, get a job with a nice pay scale . . . . :D

[TG Moses VI]

In the beginning these diff Eq. are pretty simple, but you can think of much more complex forms that will come later. In the start you will differentiate some functions (which are very simple diff equations), later you will have equations with functions as “variables”, and these functions themselves can be of more than one variable… then it gets a bit nasty, but at some stage you will notice that there is a nice “receipe” to solve many of them.
The importance of the exponential function will then be stressed, as it is part of most solutions to Diff Equations.

Yes, we covered that in class. For me differential functions were not too difficult. I have always been good with numbers and manipulating data. For example, algebra was a breeze, but geometry… not so easy. Plus, you’re right - there are plenty of shortcuts that can save you plenty of time provided you know them.

Ok, very simple:
A product has a linearly rising “cost”-function (of produced items), and a quadratically declining “asset”-function (of sold items)… which is the best
number to be produced and at what price will they be sold?

Funny… microeconomics was not that hard for me.

So although not everyone will find calculus useful in everyday life, it is handy for advancing in university to more advanced physics courses (as well as engineering) which would grossly affect your ability to, say, get a job with a nice pay scale . . .

Yes, not for the average joe, but every university student should know it.

Calculus doesn’t apply to economics, does it? If it does, please give me an example because I don’t understand.

Calc can become a very useful tool once you get into more complex aggregate supply and demand. Calc can be very useful when you get in partial derivatives and marginal analysis (often with more than one variable).

[Guest]

Back to the reasing list:

anything of Sebastian Haffner

[FinsterniS]

Falk, what the hell are diferential equations?

it was me

and shortly; it explain how a rate of change in one variable is related to other variables. And integration is the opposite (not exactly but it’s the main concept).

Serioulys YB, to know how at least the fondation of Integration/Derivation can be quite usefull in… well… most domains; sociology, physics, economy, engineering, mathematic (woooo). Sure i doupt you’ll have to solve partial derivates in your daily life but still, like Falk said it trained logic, most people will never use even algebra in their life. Before Liouville/Poincaré most mathematician believe we could explain all the world, a big modelisation as you can see, with differential equation.

Higher math is so useless.

For who ?

I still believe Newton invented Calculus simply to feel superior to everyone else.

Don’t forgert Leibniz. The fathers of calculus are Newton AND Leibniz.

[TG Moses VI]

it was me

Some people are not so bright… :-?

[yourbuttocks]

I figured that both Falk and Fisternis would know about Calc so because Falk posted more often I asked him.

THanks for the answers. RIght now I am taking trigonometry in order to prepare for Calculus.

[dIfrenT]

Umm, weird. I usually read these things to forget about school, and here my AP Calc class is haunting me. I feel a headache coming on. Since we know who invented it, I say we figure out how to make a time machine (which we’d probably need calc for), go back in time, and kill the inventors. What say? OK, OK. I guess the stuff isn’t so bad when you get used to it. Believe me YB, if you intend to do any science/math (of course) related field, you’d better get used to it. I’m going to major in chemistry or biochem. I hate the trig that’s used in calc, sorry about that YB, but I think trig’s the hardest. Learn it now. Differential equations are anywhere from tolerable to fun. I used to LOVE math (as in go home and do math problems to relax - until H. Pre-calculus). Sad, huh? I had no life. Fortunately, I’ve branched out.

About the reading list.
I had to read Animal Farm, and I almost had to read 1984 this year. We had to read Great Expectations. I hate that book with a passion. I only read half of it (but the teacher explained it so well in class that I got like a 96% on the test). Ummm, Pride and Prejudice was very good. Not just the romance, but the interpretations you can get from it. I’m in AP English, so we have to tear the book apart piece by piece and write practice timed-writes (for the AP test).
My favorites were Heart of Darkness, and Crime and Punishment.
Ones I could have done without are any books by Charles Dickens, Romeo and Juliet (that is just so incredibly OLD and ground into the dirt), and The Great Gatsby.
I did kind of like The Old Man and the Sea. It was sad to “see” an old man devastated like that.
I’ll be reading Jane Eyre next. I hope it’s good.

[TG Moses VI]

I did kind of like The Old Man and the Sea. It was sad to “see” an old man devastated like that.

I’m not sure you understood the story’s ending then…

Ones I could have done without are any books by Charles Dickens, Romeo and Juliet (that is just so incredibly OLD and ground into the dirt), and The Great Gatsby.

I couldn’t agree more :lol:

My favorites were Heart of Darkness, and Crime and Punishment

Yes, both are good books.

had to read Animal Farm, and I almost had to read 1984 this year. We had to read Great Expectations.

THe only one I like out of the three is 1984. :)

[Yanny]

1984 is really a great book. You should read it, school or not.