Stompy

I enjoy the math and I know it'll definitely be needed at some point. I was just saying that I would retain it much better if I had a real world example in which it was actually used.

It's easier to study for a test when you have a better understanding of what exactly it is you're learning, not just how to do it. I remember doing derivatives and logarithms in pre-calc, and in fact I aced those tests. The problem is I was often stuck wondering "What is this actually used for?" I had all the rules memorized and knew how to work the problems, but without any real application, I didn't have a complete understanding of what I was actually doing or what exactly I was working with and what place it held in mathematics.

After people mentioned a few of the things that will be covered, I suddenly remembered some of it from pre-calc.. the stuff I did remember was also given with a real world application. Growth: compounding interest, Decay: radioactive elements, Trig: triangles, sides, angles, etc..

But the few things that didn't stick were the logarithms and derivatives because of a lack of something to attach it to.. a practical use or application.

See what I'm sayin?

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I guess a good example would be story problems, the kind that give you a real world situation that you could solve by applying the skills you're learning. I recall ones for growth and decay (as mentioned above) being attributed to bank accounts and compounding interest over t time and decaying elements over t time. Trig had a few of those flagpole/shadow problems, but I don't remember any story problems for logarithms or derivatives.

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