Your First Basic CALCULUS Problem Let’s Do It Together….

I was so scared of math when I was young I didn't dare take higher math. So at 70, I realized that those fears were because I had a weak concept of Algebra 2. It still makes my head spin, but I appreciate computers and videos that I can pause and proceed at my own speed.

Not sure how I ended up watching this video, but I watched it all the way through. Wish I had a teacher like this for when I struggled with math.

I am 68 y.o. with degree in mechanical engineering which means 4 semesters of Calculus in college I took almost 50 years ago. I stumbled upon this video and what I did when the problem was posited, I froze the video to see if I could solve this elementary calculus problem. I did and got the right answer...first derivative and setting the first derivative = 0 and solving for x. Calculus throughout my life has been something I thought about but rarely used. The gift of learning is the greatest gift of all and I am forever in debt to my brilliant college professors and colleagues I worked with throughout my career. My major in college used the highest level of math which was partial differential equations and even when very young it was most challenging. Thanks for channel. You are a great teacher.

In high school and college I was always intimidated by higher math, not because I didn't understand it but rather because I have severe test anxiety. It sucks. But I'm now 51 years old and have been a software engineer since 24. Math has been integral in my career. These videos make revisiting math fun and enjoyable. 🙂👍 I'm so glad my kids do not share my anxieties. Thank God.

I'm 75 and had advanced math courses. I have been doing his popup quizzes for 2 months as an attempt to remain nimble of mind. He has math courses for all MATH. Why is MATH important? 1. CALCULATORS become a crutch but not always the answer. 2. Many schools offer "more interesting" courses in place of MATH. 3. We need to exercise are body and our MIND! 4. You gain self-esteem by being proficient in MATH. 5. Success in MATH yields success in LIFE. Keep up the good work.

My high school maths teacher didn’t explain calculus this easily and nicely. Excellent lesson. If you know algebra this stuff is a picnic.

I can appreciate this instructor's enthusiasm. That's one sign of a good teacher. But I believe that he misspoke toward the end of this video when says that the top of the parabola is (4,-7), when it is actually the other way around, (-4,7).

I am a 79 year-old Ivy League Spanish major - (Cornell '67) - never took calculus, and found this video perfectly understandable. The derivative and the calculation of derivative finally make perfect sense to me. I now feel ready to learn more math from TabletClass!

This video is just great. I am 70 yrs old and I am just reaching back to my high school math years for pure pleasure. Thank you.

This is the way calculus should be presented--pique interest and understanding first, before getting into the application. I dropped my first calculus class in college because the prof started into a problem with a "well, let's see" approach when I didn't even know what he was doing.

Thanks for the lesson. You mentioned the big picture in the beginning and I think that is so important for the student to comprehend what they are doing. We had a professor in engineering school who always advised when taking derivatives what exactly we are looking at and that is the rate of change if one variable with respect to another. He mentioned this over and over again to beat it through our heads what exactly we are looking at

I had a terrific Functions/Trig teacher like this when I went back to refresh... to continue with Cal 1 and Cal 2. Great memory, terrific teacher.

I enjoyed this video. I was a math minor in college many years ago and have forgotten much about calculus. After being a pilot for my career, yes, there wouldn't be aviation without calculus. I think I'll go find my calculus book and play around with it. It's better than solitaire.

I wish all instructors were as clear and provided simple instructions. Great work!

I'm an eleven year old seeking for more advanced blocks of mathematics that exceed my age level, and this video was a great introduction of calculus.

I took calc all the way through differential equations when I was in college. According to K-12 standardized test scores I had great aptitude, but I except for 8th grade algebra when I had a gifted, fabulous teacher I always avoided math because I never really could make it fit together. I thought I was just stupid. Then in my first college math course I got very lucky again and found a teacher that changed my learning life. I had him for college math and algebra but then had to take my first calculus class without him. I dropped it. It was then that I realized a lot of my issues really did have to do with the teachers and the way they taught, and I wasn’t just stupid. But I had finally discovered that I really did love math, so I tried again. After I transferred to a different college I got another fabulous teacher and stuck with her from Calc 1 through “diffy q’s”. I had to work really hard... I took detailed, voluminous notes, and did all my homework three times, Lol...but I got straight A’s. I also became a successful tutor for a while. Many of my students told me I broke it down better than their teachers and their test scores improved dramatically. I considered going into teaching but decided against it, largely because of the curriculum for educating teachers. Comprehending math changed my life. It structured my thinking and even helped my writing ability. I was able to write things more clearly because math and specifically calculus had taught me how to pick a problem apart and put it back together to arrive at an orderly, effective solution. Calculus is bar none one of the great brain growing tools of all time. It’s been 20 years since I finished my DE class. This popped up on my YouTube feed so I decided to give it a watch for a quick, fun refresher. And I gotta say, while I admire the spirit in which this guy is trying to help, if I was a neophyte, struggling student with no previous knowledge of calculus, this wouldn’t have made much sense to me at all. I would have zeroed right out of his Calc class in short order. He’s all over the map. It’s obvious that math and Calc is something that just always kind of made sense to him, and he doesn’t break it down in a way that’s conducive to the kind of structured, almost rote approach that many of us knuckle draggers need to really comprehend and internalize math. The majority of students are knuckle draggers when it comes to math. I can say that because I was one. One of the things I realized during my math journey in college is that I did not need to grasp the concept being taught immediately in order to be successful. Concepts are important, but it’s not always imperative that they be completely understood immediately in order to achieve success in the classroom. My Calc teacher would sometimes tell us that she was going to teach us the mechanics first and circle back around to the concepts, and also why she was doing it that way for this particular section. It worked! I learned that if I was given a formula and I could memorize it well enough to break a problem down well enough get the right answer for a test, the concept ALWAYS came to me eventually. Sometimes it was sooner, and sometimes it was later. A couple of times the aha moment actually happened during the test while I was working a problem. Lol. The point is that if I could memorize and learn the mechanics well enough to achieve outstanding success on the test, I ALWAYS internalized the concept behind the mechanics at some point. This guy doesn’t spend enough time on the mechanics, IMO. Rote learning has fallen out of favor, but there’s a huge gap in our education process and our education outcomes because of it. The insistence on complete conceptualization at the expense of the hard work of rote learning is where education in general but math education in particular has been failing our young people for over 40 years. Rote learning is a necessary prerequisite to success for all but a fortunate few. And most of us are never going to go on to be engineers or physicists, so we will never use algebra, trig, or calculus for anything practical in our lives. So if the arcane concepts of slope and area under a curve fade for us over time...that is to say, if the larger concepts fade...its not really any harm. But the restructuring of our brains incurred by learning how to pick a problem apart at the mechanical level and arrive at a correct solution, will never leave us. That kind of learning is crucial in life. It’s not popular in modern teaching theory and it’s not popular with students cuz the mechanics are hard work, but teachers especially math teachers who don’t ultimately grasp this concept are doing their students a grave disservice. Just sayin’ in case that helps. This vid gets an A for effort and heart, because it’s in the right place. I think this guy loves his students and he loves math. But it gets just a C for overall effectiveness, which is what really counts.

8o years old and just now understand what the quadratic equation was for. If I had only been taught properly my life could have took a very different turn. This should be a good lesson for teachers "sit up & take notice". Thank you Mark, I intend to follow your teaching of the calculus course and hope I can remember enough algebra to get through,:-) Please don't take any notice of the 'downers' who like to complain about everything, bob

I accidentally came across your video .. and speaking as a former Calculus Professor with 40 years experience... this is one of the best videos on youtube introducing Calculus to 1st year college kids! Excellent Job!

Hi!! Thank you so much for this video. I have to take a calculus class for my BA major. I haven’t taken a math class in 5 years. I was scared but watching this video made me realize that it’s not so scary and I can do this! ❤

I never thought I would need any of this while in school, though in the recent years I have had to tackle many task which needs not only calculus though lots of other styles of math also. Almost everything in the 3D designing and game developing requires such knowledge, and same with sound engineering, though the cool thing about sound engineering mostly everything on the energy frequency spectrum is universal, so if your knowledgeable with radio waves then you will do well with microwaves.