jws ...
I am really fascinated by your discussion. Thank you for sharing your experience.
There are people like yourself that simply are more intelligent than those around you. Some have a particular skill at a very young age whereby they master advanced mathematics, play the piano, code or other things that most people struggle to do well no matter how much education they receive. Many start college right after high school, at about 18 years of age. But then there are the few that graduate from high school at 14, 15 or 16. Basically, there is nothing left for them to learn in the environment they are in, such as yourself.
I had a dual major as an undergraduate in college and one of them was mathematics. I had often heard that calculus is useless in the real world (probably by people who don't understand it). But nonetheless, I found that and the more advanced courses fascinating and, well, not that difficult from a studying time perspective.
Real world usage: My wife works as a manager for a mid-sized (250 people) manufacturing company. She has oversight of the purchasing and warehousing functions. There is the constant struggle of knowing how much to buy to keep inventory levels low (and the finance department happy) compared to maintaining higher inventory levels (and keep the marketing and sales departments happy). It's a traditional struggle that most companies face and there are thousands of books and research papers devoted to this subject.
Anyway, her math is not the best but I spent a couple of evenings with her to learn how to determine the most effective purchasing strategies using calculus. Basically, she just had to come up with all of the estimated costs for each step in the process. There is a cost to place a purchase order, a cost to coordinate the logistics in the receipt of the shipment, a cost to receive the product in the warehouse, a cost to move the product to the proper bin, etc etc etc etc. About a dozen that she described.
Once she came up with her estimates, it was simply a matter of creating a relatively simple formula using each item listed which visually creates a curve. Then, the calculus part came into play. We just used the formula, took the first derivative (Y/X) , found where the slope of the curve was equal to zero (the minimum point) and that gave a good starting point as to how often to order based upon the quantities required in some period of time.
She gives a lot of Powerpoint presentation throughout the year to the other managers and staff, but this one scored her a lot of points. It was even mentioned by the general manager in her performance review at the end of the year.
jws, I know that some minimize advanced education here but if I had it to do all over again, I would do it in a minute.
I just wish I had the smarts to be in MENSA like you. But then, each person has his own skills and aptitudes.
Rub a Dub
