Everyday calculus : discovering the hidden math all around us
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Bibliographic Information
Everyday calculus : discovering the hidden math all around us
Princeton University Press, c2014
- : hardcover
Available at / 11 libraries
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Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Calculus. For some of us, the word conjures up memories of ten-pound textbooks and visions of tedious abstract equations. And yet, in reality, calculus is fun, accessible, and surrounds us everywhere we go. In Everyday Calculus, Oscar Fernandez shows us how to see the math in our coffee, on the highway, and even in the night sky. Fernandez uses our everyday experiences to skillfully reveal the hidden calculus behind a typical day's events. He guides us through how math naturally emerges from simple observations--how hot coffee cools down, for example--and in discussions of over fifty familiar events and activities. Fernandez demonstrates that calculus can be used to explore practically any aspect of our lives, including the most effective number of hours to sleep and the fastest route to get to work. He also shows that calculus can be both useful--determining which seat at the theater leads to the best viewing experience, for instance--and fascinating--exploring topics such as time travel and the age of the universe. Throughout, Fernandez presents straightforward concepts, and no prior mathematical knowledge is required.
For advanced math fans, the mathematical derivations are included in the appendixes. Whether you're new to mathematics or already a curious math enthusiast, Everyday Calculus invites you to spend a day discovering the calculus all around you. The book will convince even die-hard skeptics to view this area of math in a whole new way.
Table of Contents
Preface ix Calculus Topics Discussed by Chapter xi CHAPTER 1 Wake Up and Smell the Functions 1 What's Trig Got to Do with Your Morning? 2 How a Rational Function Defeated Thomas Edison, and Why Induction Powers the World 5 The Logarithms Hidden in the Air 10 The Frequency of Trig Functions 14 Galileo's Parabolic Thinking 17 CHAPTER 2 Breakfast at Newton's 21 Introducing Calculus, the CNBC Way 21 Coffee Has Its Limits 25 A Multivitamin a Day Keeps the Doctor Away 30 Derivatives Are about Change 34 CHAPTER 3 Driven by Derivatives 35 Why Do We Survive Rainy Days? 36 Politics in Derivatives, or Derivatives in Politics? 39 What the Unemployment Rate Teaches Us about the Curvature of Graphs 41 America's Ballooning Population 44 Feeling Derivatives 46 The Calculus of Time Travel 47 CHAPTER 4 Connected by Calculus 51 E-Mails, Texts, Tweets, Ah! 51 The Calculus of Colds 53 What Does Sustainability Have to Do with Catching a Cold? 56 What Does Your Retirement Income Have to Do with Traffic? 58 The Calculus of the Sweet Tooth 61 CHAPTER 5 Take a Derivative and You'll Feel Better 65 I "Heart" Differentials 65 How Life (and Nature) Uses Calculus 67 The Costly Downside of Calculus 73 The Optimal Drive Back Home 75 Catching Speeders Efficiently with Calculus 77 CHAPTER 6 Adding Things Up, the Calculus Way 81 The Little Engine That Could ... Integrate 82 The Fundamental Theorem of Calculus 90 Using Integrals to Estimate Wait Times 93 CHAPTER 7 Derivatives Integrals: The Dream Team 97 Integration at Work-Tandoori Chicken 98 Finding the Best Seat in the House 101 Keeping the T Running with Calculus 104 Look Up to Look Back in Time 108 The Ultimate Fate of the Universe 109 The Age of the Universe 113 Epilogue 116 Appendix A Functions and Graphs 119 Appendices 1-7 125 Notes 147 Index 149
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