My five year old asked me what calculus is.

cross-posted from: https://pixelfed.crimedad.work/p/crimedad/664838819785277759

My five year old asked me what calceulus is.
The context is that I'm an engineer and she wanted to know what I learned in engineering school, so I said calculus. (In my case, I only made it to pre-calc in highschool.) I swear I'm not the type of parent to try and push this stuff on her. I said it's about understanding how things change and then I tried to illustrate it. I'm open to suggestions on how I could answer her better.
calculus #engineering #parenting
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Lemmy Dadsplain @lemmy.ca

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Engineering @sh.itjust.works

My five year old asked me what calculus is.

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My five year old asked me what calceulus is.

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4 comments

Honestly I think things like that are good. I was pressured into engineering as a kid, and while yeah there are issues but there’s a huge difference between “go study more” and “here’s the basics of complicated stuff you’re likely to learn later”
A 5 year old knowing that we have math for how change works and that calculus while at times quite difficult isn’t some mythical thing that only really smart people learn but actually something that any adult could learn on their own faster than most languages.
Keep demystifying math to kids, it’s not scary if you approach it from a position of curiosity

Thanks for posting this kind of stuff. I love the day-in-a-life content.
As for calculus, I'm not sure there's more a 5 yo could grasp! But if there is, you could show how a bunch of straight lines arranged just so make a very smooth curve. Reminds me of my time spent playing Line Rider way back when. It's also handy if ever you need to round a corner with some scissors!
- Thanks for the game suggestion. My daughter really liked it. I should find more of these physics type games for her.

This is the same explanation I used with my dad haha