• @vrek
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    136 days ago

    I’m normally a fan of xkcd but I don’t get this one.

    Why would calculus teachers drill holes in the base of the tanks?

    • @[email protected]
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      506 days ago

      A common problem in many introductory calculus courses is to calculate the amount of water that drains from a container, because it introduces accumulation of change over time.

      • @[email protected]
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        22 days ago

        And then it’s in differential equations too since the rate is actually based on the pressure which is proportional to the height of the liquid in the tank

      • @vrek
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        46 days ago

        Ah ok that makes sense, more of a compsci guy then a pure math guy

    • @[email protected]
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      16 days ago

      Because many calculus problems deal with rate of change as derivatives/integrals are important to solving them. A common word problem in calculus courses deals with tanks of fluid draining from a hole at the bottom as it deals with several factors that change over time.

      • @vrek
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        16 days ago

        Ah ok that makes sense, more of a compsci guy then a pure math guy