Calculus

[The Hobo]

I'm a little worried. I'm going into college and taking prealculus (at the student advisor) but have never taken any trigonometry or FST like classes.

According to the studen advisor, trig is a dead rung that doesn't branch of into calculus and that I wouldn't need it to take precalc. Is this true or am I going to be bombing big time?

[Gandalf_Grey_]

What exactly do you mean by precalc. In the calculus class that i took (the most advanced that you could get at my high school, OAC calc) we didn't get into trig and just got as far as doing crap with e, logorithms and i think that is it (honestly i can't remember, ask alphanos he probably has a better memory than me and was in the same class).

[bugzpodder]

i tell tell you this, you definitely need trig! there is a pretty thick chapter on the derivitives of trig functions as well as integration. do a crash course on trig here: http://www.sosmath.com/

but don't worry to much there isn't much in basic trig, you can just get it in a few days.

Precalc is simiply the basics in elementary algebra and geometry and such. btw the OAC Calc class in our school goes pretty deep cuz of the good teachers, lol.

[bugzpodder]

ok but then again, they may teach you trig in a Calculus class. they re-taught it in our school!

[NotLKH]

Originally posted by bugzpodder
i tell tell you this, you definitely need trig! there is a pretty thick chapter on the derivitives of trig functions as well as integration. do a crash course on trig here: http://www.sosmath.com/

but don't worry to much there isn't much in basic trig, you can just get it in a few days.

Precalc is simiply the basics in elementary algebra and geometry and such. btw the OAC Calc class in our school goes pretty deep cuz of the good teachers, lol.

Good point!


Now, Precalc is where they do all the stupid proofs, the lims as delta x approaches infinity and zero. In my understanding. In High school, I took ITCM, Z{Introduction to college mathematics}, and all that calc setup stuff was addressed in the first half of this year long course.

I hated it. I hate proofs when you know you'll never have to do one again when you work in the applied area of that mathematical expertise.

So, your precalc should have nothing to do with trig.

However, Calculus IS very focused on trig functions, ie, there is a definite focus on derivatives of the trig functions, and how to integrate them, and also how to, upon inspection of certain functions, apply a trig substitution to allow integration and derivation.

If your school allowed{allows} you to approach any calc oriented college course without any exposure to trig, you are hurting in the long run.




Hey! Get your teachers comment in writing, with any backup authorization from your schools admin, and if{when} you fail, sue the hell out of your old school, for wrongful representation as an educational institution!

You could make MILLIONS!!!

[Gandalf_Grey_]

Originally posted by bugzpodder
Precalc is simiply the basics in elementary algebra and geometry and such. btw the OAC Calc class in our school goes pretty deep cuz of the good teachers, lol.

oh, we called precalc just math. The teacher who taught me calculus was VERY good. He was no doubt the best in the school and knew what he was talking about. The ******* teacher Alphanos was talking about was a different guy as both he and i took 2 math classes last year

[The Hobo]

haha, you guys are using big words and that scares me.

I don't know exactly what precalc is. I always thought it was just an introductory to calculus. But the whole notion of it freaks me out.

I do know very basic trig stuff because we covered it in Algebra 2 or Geometry, one of those. All that Sin, Cos and Tan stuff that I really don't remember much about.

I have 30 days to drop it and get my money back. So I guess I could chill for two weeks and if it's all above me, then I'll just drop it and pick up some other classes that lead into it.

Thanks for all the information

[NotLKH]

Whats your major?
Perhaps you should tough it out? Get some perty blond girl t'at nows her bees en cees, ta giv ya sum extra-vehicular ejucation,
if ya no wat ah meen!

[The Hobo]

haha.

Majoring in Computer Science. I think I'm going to go down and buy my book tomorrow, look through it for a few weeks before class starts and see if I think I can handle it.

I aced my way through my high school math classes. It's just the lack of trig that makes me a little uneasy.

My high school had Algebra 2, FST (functions, statistics and trig), then precalc and calc. I never took FST. That's why I'm a bit worried.

[NotLKH]

I'm pretty sure you can handle precalc without trig, but if you're
going to go on with all the regular calc courses later on, then
perhaps you should take a trig course while doing precalc.

-Lou

[Destined Soul]

Like most people here, I'd suggest taking trig as you will need to use it. However, I doubt that you'll need it for pre-calc itself. Calculus later on, however, yes you will.

Good luck.

Destined

[MathImagics]

Are you North Americans talking about university when you say "college"?? After 50 years, I still can't tell!!!

My advice to anybody contemplating a university course who finds the very notion of calculus fear-inspiring really should ask themselves "why am I then taking a course that requires calculus?"

No offence intended, but isn't it a fair question?


It's Ok for me I know, I just love maths like flies like, well, you know!


Dr Memory

[Destined Soul]

Originally posted by MathImagics
Are you North Americans talking about university when you say "college"??

For me, it's often both. From what I know of the colleges I've been to (visited), they often offer first and second year courses identical to university courses, and in the rare occasion, third and forth year courses. However, colleges usually have a much smaller selection of courses than universities.

Much like BugZ, its really the teachers/professors that are the things that count, not the class offered. The only time that this doesn't apply is in the name that's attached to your degree.

As for the fear associated with classes, I think it's just getting over the idea of the class being difficult. Once you can accept that millions of people have learned the same subject before you (odds are you're smarter than a LOT of them... ) you should do fine.

Destined

[MathImagics]

I was a tutor at Uni of Waterloo back in 74/75. One of my classes was the first-year (freshman?) Calculus course for students enrolling in the Engineering faculty. Talk about attrition rates! It was really sad - 1 in 3 didn't get past the first term, and I kept asking myself "But why choose Engineering????"

But, I was told by the locals that this was normal (back then, anyway) - this course was nick-named "Separating the wheat from the Chaff 101" - they accepted students whether or not they had any calculus in high school, and then spent the whole first semester weeding out the weak ones..... sigh...

Dr Memory