Great, simple overview of Calculus by Steven Strogatz on nytimes.com.

“Calculus is the mathematics of change. It describes everything from the spread of epidemics to the zigs and zags of a well-thrown curveball. The subject is gargantuan — and so are its textbooks. Many exceed 1,000 pages and work nicely as doorstops.

But within that bulk you’ll find two ideas shining through.  All the rest, as Rabbi Hillel said of the Golden Rule, is just commentary.  Those two ideas are the “derivative” and the “integral.”  Each dominates its own half of the subject, named in their honor as differential and integral calculus.”

Read it here, honest, it’s way better than my last calculus class…

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/change-we-can-believe-in/