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The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1633: Studying Calculus
Episode: 1633 In which a Cambridge don doubts his own calculus teaching. Today, a mathematician misses the point.
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B2 · Upper-intermediate
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- 85% of the words are B1 or easier.
- 154 words a minute: a natural pace.
- 37 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.
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about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.
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They don't know what it does or what it's for.
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Is this episode right for you?
B2 · Upper-intermediate
Comfortable if you already follow TV news
- 85% of the words are B1 or easier.
- 154 words a minute: a natural pace.
- 37 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.
Transcript
The opening of the episode. The whole transcript is in the player.
harder words (B2+)
Today, a mathematician misses the point. The University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them. A surprising number of otherwise educated people have never studied calculus.
They don't know what it does or what it's for. Calculus is a form of math that deals specifically with change. For example, suppose you open a plug in the bottom of a tank. You can use calculus to find out how long it will take to drain as the water level drops.
If I floor the accelerator and I know my car's maximum acceleration at any speed, then the calculus will tell me how fast I'll be going after, say, eight seconds. Now I've just found a disturbing old book from 1824 entitled A Short View of the First Principles of the Differential Calculus. It is by the Reverend Arthur Brown at Cambridge University. Brown begins with a long preface setting out his objectives. He's teaching calculus to young men who will go on to become clerics, lawyers, and statesmen.
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