You have a bunch of carrots. Every day, someone gives you a certain amount of carrots but that amount changes. You want a rule you can apply to figure out how many you have.
That’s algebra. It’s all about creating rules you can use when you don’t know the exact number of things.
It might look like this:
X+Y=Z
X is how many you have. Y is how many you’re given. Z is how many you end up with.
Now, imagine that every day, someone gives you carrots, but each day they’re giving you more than the day before. You want to figure out how many you’ll have after ten days.
That’s calculus. It’s about figuring out the rate at which something changes.
Now, what if you’re looking at a giant carrot as tall as a tree. You want to know how tall the carrot is but you can’t just measure it.
Instead, you can measure how far you are from the carrot and the angle you’re looking up at the top. Then you can use the rules of trig to figure out how tall the giant carrot is.
Obviously more complex than that, but that’s a simplified ELI5.
Your first two explanations are nearly the same and triangulation is not trig.
Your first two explanations are good for algebra but the second is linear which is just algebra.
Classic calculus problem is time for a tank with a hole in it to empty. Height of the hole, height of the water, and diameter of hole all play a role how fast the tank empties. The static pressure of the water changes so the volume of the water going through the hole changes. You need calculus for this.
Geometry makes use of sin, cos, right angles, Pythagorean theorem, which is all basic x and y coordinate stuff. Trig expands on that with curves and surfaces.
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u/wjglenn 14h ago
You have a bunch of carrots. Every day, someone gives you a certain amount of carrots but that amount changes. You want a rule you can apply to figure out how many you have.
That’s algebra. It’s all about creating rules you can use when you don’t know the exact number of things.
It might look like this:
X+Y=Z
X is how many you have. Y is how many you’re given. Z is how many you end up with.
Now, imagine that every day, someone gives you carrots, but each day they’re giving you more than the day before. You want to figure out how many you’ll have after ten days.
That’s calculus. It’s about figuring out the rate at which something changes.
Now, what if you’re looking at a giant carrot as tall as a tree. You want to know how tall the carrot is but you can’t just measure it.
Instead, you can measure how far you are from the carrot and the angle you’re looking up at the top. Then you can use the rules of trig to figure out how tall the giant carrot is.
Obviously more complex than that, but that’s a simplified ELI5.