“Most people would rather be strung up by their thumbs and systematically tortured with sharp, pointy objects than be forced ever again to find the antiderivative of a polynomial”

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http://www.amazon.com/My-Favorite-Popular-Math-Books-nonfiction/lm/R3DUP6SY0CLTIZ

“Frankly, most of us don’t even know what calculus entails; its reputation for being difficult and unpleasant precedes it. Calculus is quite simple and straightforward

in concept; the devil is in the details.”

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Essentially, calculus is a way of measuring change, whether it be change in position, temperature,

or what have you. Its power comes from its universality

Calculus boils down to two fundamental ideas: (1) the derivative (differential calculus), which is a way of measuring instantaneous

change, such as finding the speed of a car when you only know its position

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“and (2) the integral (integral calculus), which describes the accumulation of an infinite number of tiny pieces that add up to a whole and can be used, for instance, to determine

the distance a car has traveled when only its speed is known. Everything else is just a variation on these two themes”

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“I think scientists have a valid point when they bemoan the fact that it’s socially acceptable in our culture to be utterly ignorant of

math, whereas it is a shameful thing to be illiterate.”

“The act of devising a calculus problem from your observations of the world around you—and then solving it—is as much a creative

endeavor as writing a novel or composing a symphony. Those things are not easy, nor should they be.”

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“All types of motion can be represented graphically by a smooth, continuous curve, and that curve in turn can be used to make predictions about the trajectory (path) of a moving object.”

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“Rather than thinking of a curve as a simple geometrical shape or construction on paper, Newton began to think

of curves in real life—not as static structures like buildings or windmills, but as dynamic motions with variable quantities” Jason Bardi “The Calculus Wars”