Let me try an experiment for a while:
engineering_pe at opusnet dot com
I've been in mechanical engineering for 25yrs and I have also WRITTEN EXAM PROBLEMS for the P.E. (professional engineering licensing) exam.
Fire off some math or physics questions to the address above, and then I will see if I have the bandwidth to post or reply with simple solutions.
The one limitation I see in using a forum like this is that it's hard to write math symbols.
Also, half my family is from Quebec (mother's side) so I know a decent amount of French.
As an overview of calculus, lets say you are trying to count boxes of stuff going by on a conveyor belt, so you can know the total amount of stuff you have brought in.
Now, ARITHMETIC is great for counting boxes that are all the same.
But what happens if:
a) the boxes are getting bigger as they go by, or
b) each time you count a box it did something to all the other boxes you already counted?
This is what calculus does. It is for counting things that change while you are counting them.
Two examples:
a) True story: Titanic hits the iceberg, and Captain Smith asked his Chief Engineer Joseph Bell: "How much time do we have?"
So if the size of the opening does not change, the rate that the water floods into the ship CHANGES based on the difference in the water levels outside and inside the ship, which depends on how much of the ships weight is still up above the water.
Mr Bell studied the blueprints, made an estimate of "two hours" in his head. Actual time left afloat was 2hrs 10min. Good Job, Sir!
b) The thrust of a model rocket engine pushes on the mass of the rocket. But the mass CHANGES over time as the fuel is burned and leaves the nozzle. How high can the rocket go?
Thinking about counting stuff that changes while you are counting it may help you understand what's happening to the "area under the curve."
