Differentiation help

[PermaBanned]

Pretty much any science/engineering work has A-Level calculus at it's heart... also economics, any quantitative field really. Most things in the real world change at interesting rates to one another, that's calculus.

Could you give an example? Hate to be a pain but i can't recall any data that would plot to a quadratic graph.

 

[clv101]

Could you give an example? Hate to be a pain but i can't recall any data that would plot to a quadratic graph.

From my own field, the rate of ice loss from both Greenland and Antarctica over the last decade is a quadratic - it's accelerating.

 

[Morbius]

So why aren't we taught that? I find it really hard to learn things if i can't understand them, i think knowing what they're for is something of an important point for understanding them.

I completely understand what you mean and I sympathise, having had the same experience when studying representation theory during my degree.

It was only when I did my degree that I got answers to questions I'd asked at GCSE and A Level, simply because my teachers at the time couldn't answer them. The reason that mathematics teaching at school is so lacking is because for the most part, the best students at university don't go on to teach in schools. But kids need someone who can answer all their questions in order to learn and fully understand.