Science and Inquiry discussion

For October 2021 we will be reading Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe by Steven H. Strogatz.

Please use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

found Audiobook on Hoopla. Will be starting soon. can't wait for the group to share their views.

In the UK, the Kindle version of this book is available for free via Prime Reading - just in case anyone's trying to locate it or buy it.
(Can't figure out if it is the same for other geographical locations as well).

One of my grade 10 students has been carrying this book around (in Chinese though because we’re in China), which gives me hope it’s readable for someone who struggled with calculus? (I love math before calculus though)… (Or he’s a genius, I just started teaching him so don’t know him that well yet). I have it on kindle (English for me) so will give it a try.

I've started this book and so far I'm loving it. I'm one of those people who loved high school math (esp. algebra) but had trouble with calculus when I got to college. I'm hoping this book will do a better job of explaining calculus. So far (part way into Chapter 1), it's looking good.

I'm loving this book. I was good at math (not geometry) but never fell in love with it. I guess I needed a book like this. 20% in and loving so far.

“Making sense of ever changing change”
I appreciate the explanation of why. I feel it brings more intuitiveness to complex math, and breaks down the intimidating stigma. I’m about half way through, and thoroughly enjoying it. Also thank goodness for Khan Academy! We are not crippled by where we under achieved in our pasts. There are a couple of books I really want to read, but will need much more Of an understanding of Calculus than I currently have in my back pocket. This book has inspired me to go back and relearn!

I'm loving the time spent with Archimedes here & the slow outlining of the conceptual foundations of Calculus. It's making me want to revisit Calculus again! (I enjoyed it in college, but didn't spend any time reflecting on the those underlying concepts or how they connected with the history of mathematics and philosophy)

Eliana wrote: "I'm loving the time spent with Archimedes here & the slow outlining of the conceptual foundations of Calculus. It's making me want to revisit Calculus again! (I enjoyed it in college, but didn't sp..."

Yes, I'm enjoying the history, but I'm hoping he later gets into some current fundamentals. When I was studying calculus in college, I could memorize formulas and spit them back, but I never really understood them. The history helps, but I'm afraid I'm going to need more than that.

Okay, we're getting to some meat now. Logarithms and derivatives. About where my mind usually starts to go woolly. So far, I'm following his explanations, but we'll see.

I finished the book, but to be honest, I had to skip a few equations which flew right over my head. i think being a biologist, I can have an excuse lolzzzz

I purchased this book when it was new and read the first few chapters and then put it on a shelf where it's been sitting for the past 2 years or so. This group gave me the incentive to pull it out and finish it. I also found it on Hoopla through my library so I listened while I was reading and I think that helped me. I admit there were a few things I couldn't quite grasp but this time I let them go and moved on to finish the whole book!

Did anyone else struggle with Archimedes Method in Chapter 2? I like that the author called it "an acid trip of an argument" because that made me feel better about not totally grasping it.

Jessica wrote: "Did anyone else struggle with Archimedes Method in Chapter 2? I like that the author called it "an acid trip of an argument" because that made me feel better about not totally grasping it."

Yes. I wasn't totally lost but didn't really get it.

I think the two takeaways for me were an increased appreciation for Archimedes and the nice application of differential equations to understanding HIV. Otherwise I knew the calculus already, and since I listened to it on audiobook I missed some of the diagrams. But it's well written and still interesting.

I finally finished this book. It didn't help my woollyness with derivatives and integrals, but I don't think that was the real purpose of the book. I think it was to increase our appreciation for calculus generally and in that I think it succeeded. Here is my review.

Pramod wrote: "Hey I'm currently learning mathematics From scratch but I found geometry very hard to grasp due to its theorems and postulates and trigonometry too.. so how to approach these subjects?"

I do math problems for fun and when I tried to get into some trig problems, I realized my geometry was pretty shaky. So I went back and got a review book called "Must Know High School Geometry" by Allen Ma and Amber Kuang. It was quicker to get through than a textbook and I was doing trig problems in short order.