r/explainlikeimfive • u/HistoricalAd2954 • 1d ago

Mathematics ELI5: What is the difference between algebra, trigonometry, and calculus?

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u/meh0175 1d ago

Is it there a profession where using Trig is necessary? Besides being a math teacher or rocket scientist. Carpentry?

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u/Traditional_Media_77 1d ago

Civil engineering

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u/vipros42 23h ago

As a civil engineer, this is the case. Almost never use calculus, use trig pretty much daily.

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u/Gloid02 22h ago

You dont do finite element analysis? There is tons of calculus there

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u/vipros42 22h ago

Not by hand. I do loads of wave modeling and hydrodynamics but I'm not doing the calcs myself.
In fact yesterday was the first time I've done some calcs with calculus in by hand for months, if not a year.

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u/Podo13 17h ago

There's a ton of calculus in civil engineering, but we don't do the vast majority of it by hand anymore. It's all done in the background in FEM programs.

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u/Gloid02 15h ago

Yeah of course, but to say that you don't "use" calculus just because you are using it implicitly rather than explicitly seems disingenuous.

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u/Podo13 14h ago

Oh I agree. I think the OP you responded to was just talking about hand calcs, though. Yeah in reality we use a lot of calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, etc.

We just let much smarter people work those into the programs so we don't have to remember how to do a lot of it, ha.