Monday, March 3, 2014

Calculus Verus Statistics


From Arvind Narayan - the Georgia Tech February 7, 2014 Technique and Emphasis on calculus  unnecessary:

"My problem with calculus isn't its commonly overstated difficulty.  As an engineer myself, I have used calculus on almost every problem set I have been assigned since my first year.
 
On the other hand, thousands of chemistry majors sit there, evaluating triple integrals in preparation for the one five minute interval in their lives taking a derivative before just using Wolfram Alpha.
 
Consider, then an actually useful replacement for calculus: probability and statistics.  Why not spend time building up to this subject instead?
 
Probability and statistics are not just useful for STEM students.  Marketing is the art of manipulating the chance that a consumer will buy a product.  Sociology is an in-depth analysis of the probability of a person's decisions in a given scenario.  Entrepreneurs must be fully aware of risks before undertaking any venture.  None of these people would benefit from learning unreasonably specific cases of Graham's Law"

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