XKCD: It's more than a comic

I once knew how that works, but I never had to use it, so I forgot.

The universe is under no obligation to make sense to us.

Heh, that's pretty true.

Integration by parts is… well, here's what I go through:

• "Hmm… I'm not sure how to do this integral… maybe I should try integration by parts?
• "How does integration by parts work again?"
• "I think it's like this… oh, damn it, now it looks even more complicated!"
• "Screw it, I'm just using an integral table instead."

edited 19th Apr '13 11:46:14 AM by Gilphon

"Canada Day is over, and now begins the endless dark of the Canada Night."

I learned integration in my AP calculus course in high school, then promptly forgot it because I never used it.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

Took calculus in university, hated did, got decent grades, promptly forgot all of it.

Going by the comments on this thread, there seems to be a trend...why make people who aren't ever going to use calculus take classes on it? (I was studying molecular biology, by the way. I never used calculus in relation to it. I was required to take calculus anyway.)

edited 19th Apr '13 11:49:36 AM by WarriorEowyn

Same here. Though the simpler parts of integration I still remember. Though there's something telling me it's not as simple as the comic is making it out to be.

edited 19th Apr '13 11:50:13 AM by stingerbrg

For a spell, I wanted to go in "Pure and Applied Sciences", and had calculus too. I recently dropped it in favor of another program.

I already forgot all about the two classes of calculus I did.

Keeps your options open. If you know how to use it, you'll be prepared if you choose classes and/or a career which demand it. Teachers and professors don't know whether a student will ever use knowledge of subjects like calculus if they learn it, but they know they won't ever use it if they don't.

What pisses me off is when teachers and professors try to come up with "real life applications" for you to use mathematical knowledge on when you'll never have to work out that sort of problem that way in real life, or say things like "you need to learn calculus to understand concepts like rates of change," which just isn't true. All it accomplishes is making their students cynical because their teachers are trying to sell them on a necessity which clearly isn't there.

...eventually, we will reach a maximum entropy state where nobody has their own socks or underwear, or knows who to ask to get them back.

/didn't learn integration in high school.

I learned it in university, because I'm a math major.

"Canada Day is over, and now begins the endless dark of the Canada Night."

I loved learning calculus in school for the sake of learning itself. I can honestly say that I haven't had to apply it in my professional life, though. I've had to apply many other things, though, especially statistics. And oddly, you end up using polynomials a lot in game programming.

I wish I'd paid more attention to vectors and 3D geometry, though.

edited 19th Apr '13 12:28:22 PM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

I remember my math teacher used "All Students Take Calculus" as a mnemonic device for something-or-other (All Sine Tangent Cosine?) so I appreciate it being true.

Calculus was actually pretty fun back in high school, integrating stuff and all that, but I've never used it since then and have forgotten pretty much all of it.

my algebra II grades kind of sucked so I'm in Trig. I'll have calculus in college next year.

I'm baaaaaaack

I enjoyed my AP Calculus class, but like many others here, have completely forgotten how to do anything I learned. But that's true for most of the math I learned past basic algebra ^_^;

I actually remember how to do integration by parts, via the mnemonic "ultraviolet voodoo", which is likely entirely unhelpful for anyone else.

And doing calculus was fun, but I don't anticipate ever having to use it...ever.

Shinigan (Naruto fanfic)

Calculus was actually the most fun I ever had in a math class.

I'm not sure how odd that is.

"The marvel is not that the Bear posts well, but that the Bear posts at all."

Calculus was the least fun I ever had with Math. Algebra 2 was okay. Trig was great. Pre-Calc, also great. Calc itself, I dunno why but I just fell apart there.

Probability and Linear Algebra afterward, though, I liked.

Moon◊

I had to take the same calc class four and a half times, passing all but one and a half times. It got old.

I always liked it because it's pretty much math's math. It's like applying one kind of mathematics to another and seeing what happens. Is fun.

"The marvel is not that the Bear posts well, but that the Bear posts at all."

I actually took a lot more math than I needed on purpose in college, because I liked it and was good at it. I can concretely remember a time at which I knew how to do integration by parts. I cannot remember how to actually do it, and can't say I've had cause to since graduating...

BUT...

I'm also fairly certain that having learned it once, the right way, I could probably reacquaint myself with it in half an hour using just the internet if I so choose.

Your funny quote here! (Maybe)

I'm pretty sure I remember calculus being an okay subject for me... just don't add trig into the mix.

This "faculty lot" you speak of sounds like a place of great power...

Calculus was probably my best subject. Good times.

"I've come to the conclusion that this is a very stupid idea."

Integration by parts is basically the only calculus I still hate running into in even its most basic forms. A couple years later, I'm the only one who still remembers ILATE*

but I continue confusing whether to make the one closer to the beginning is u or dv.

Maybe taking the whole class isn't for everyone, but the concept of an integral is something everyone should be familiar with, just like everyone should be familiar with basic algebra.

I didn't mind calculus in high school, hated it in university, never looked at it since then and have completely forgotten almost all of it.

Girls and Boys

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What is this a reference to?

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