Practical Problems Involving Differentiation/Integration/Limits

[Crabman]

Hi guys,

As somebody who likes to learn and understand everyday problems I've really hit a wall...

I learned differentiation, integration and limits in my undergrad course, passed the exams etc but the way it was taught was pretty bad, nobody ever gave us "real life" examples. Personally I find that I learn much better with real life examples and so I thought I'd post here for some advice.

The real question is: Could you point me in the direction of some "real life" (simple, applicable problems) which require differentiation/integration to solve?

I know that there must literally be thousands and thousands but any help is appreciated.

Many thanks...

 

[fresh_42]

I know that there must literally be thousands and thousands but any help is appreciated.

Thousands of examples, yes. Everyday examples, no. You don't need differentiation or integration at the bakery around the corner. In science, however, and especially in physics it is daily business and examples can be found for any quantity which is defined as an integral, which solves a differential equation, or which is a derivative itself. So basically any physical quantity!

As I don't think those examples are meant I refrain from listing them. Google "work + example" or "acceleration + example" for those. Maybe geometric examples like the volume of rotation objects or path lengths is closest as you can get for "everyday" examples.