Everyday Calculus (ebook)

Argumento de Everyday Calculus (ebook)

"For every befuddled math student who's ever sat in class and thought, 'When am I ever going to use this?' Fernandez, assistant professor of mathematics at Wellesley College, gleefully reveals the truth: the world really does run on math. . . . Whether describing how biology uses math to design more efficient organs and body structures or the best way to figure out when to overhaul a subway car, Fernandez keeps the tone light, as entertaining as it is informative. The book will speak most strongly to readers with some experience in trigonometry and basic calculus, but it's also accessible to those willing to put in a little extra effort. Either way, Fernandez's witty, delightful approach makes for a winning introduction to the wonderland of math behind the scenes of everyday life."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Written in a bright conversational tone, this book wonderfully integrates calculus into everyday life."--GrrrlScientist

"[T]he book is perfect for a reader who really wants to know what mathematics are governing our lives and who wants to learn and understand or polish up his rusty knowledge of these mathematics."--A. Bultheel, European Mathematical Society

"Everyday Calculus is a triumph in the pursuit of the lofty goal of comprehending the world. Fernandez has touched upon a sensitive nerve, not just because mathematics makes most people cringe, but because the subject has allowed the passage of great things from some of the greatest minds ever to wander within the twentieth century. Oscar Fernandez is as bold as Alfred S. Posementier in his quest to deliver mathematical thinking as nature's gift to the thinking person."--D. Wayne Dworsky, San Francisco Book Review

"Everyday Calculus tracks a day in the life of mathematician Oscar Fernandez, from his morning cup of joe to his night out at the theater, and lets us see the world the way he does: written in equations, the language of nature. He gently guides the reader through the basics of derivatives and integrals, revealing the hidden connections lurking just beneath the surface of our daily lives."--Jennifer Ouellette, author of The Calculus Diaries

"Calculus has played an essential role in the development of engineering, medicine, physics, chemistry, geology, statistics, and a variety of other areas. But where is it in our everyday lives? In this beautiful book, Oscar Fernandez answers that question by noting all of the ways that calculus appears in the world around us, from the coffee cooling on the counter to the rain drops hitting an umbrella. You will never look at daily life in quite the same way again."--Colin Adams, coauthor of How to Ace Calculus

"With a clear style and refreshing approach, this book shows how elementary calculus is relevant to practical day-to-day events familiar to us all."--John Adam, author of X and the City: Modeling Aspects of Urban Life

"A fun and delightful read."--Thomas Garrity, Williams College

"Fernandez is especially effective when linking together seemingly disparate activities for which the underlying mathematical basis is identical. As the subtitle of the book suggests, the thrust is more one of 'discovering the hidden math all around us' rather than showing 'how mathematics is used,' which provides an honest and very pleasurable journey."--Choice

"Professor Fernandez is a delightfully quirky writer and his book Everyday Calculus is lighthearted and compelling, connecting mathematics to daily life. . . . Everyday Calculus will not only be found to be understandable by non-mathematicians but will also be found to be quite entertaining. Indeed, not everyone considers the calculus going on inside Tandoori ovens, and they should."--Robert Schaefer, New York Journal of Books

"The author earnestly and excitedly seeks to make the principles of calculus near and natural, without the intimidation of a five-pound textbook dense with equations. . . . Fernandez invites the reader along on this work day and telegraphs an enthusiasm for seeing calculus, with hints of differential equations, presented to him. This excitement will communicate itself to the math enthusiast becoming acquainted with calculus through the author's style, which is both lively and confident."--Tom Schulte, MAA Reviews

"The book offers in clear and concise fashion much of the material found in a traditional calculus textbook, but presents it beginning with a real world observation and then developing the mathematics needed to understand the observation."--AAAS

One of American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Books for General Audiences and Young Adults 2014

"Written in a bright conversational tone, this book wonderfully integrates calculus into everyday life."--Devorah Bennu, GrrlScientist, The Guardian0Preface 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