Why Take Calculus in High School
Why Take Calculus? There are so many great reasons. Here are a few.
Registration Priority
In high school, you usually get the classes you need. This is NOT the case in college.
If you are one of the last ones to register, it's very hard to get the classes you want, the teachers you want, the times you want, etc.
I remember sitting at my computer, watching the classes I want fill up while I waited my turn to register. I would stare at the clock for the exact second I could register, so I could click at the perfect time to hopefully beat the rest of the students in getting the important classes
So right away, you can see that coming into college with AP credits helps because it increases your Academic Progress Level, which means you get to register sooner.
Registration Flexibility
But there is another way AP credits help even more, check this out (click to make bigger)
Here is the "flowchart" for a civil engineering degree at Cal Poly. They've written the prerequisites for each class in green text. Long story short, you can trace the prerequisites for most classes back all the way to calculus I. Since I came into college with Calculus I and II complete, I was able to rush towards ME 212, CE 204, and ME 341. This meant I had way more options of courses to take, since I already completed the main prerequisites for my major. Therefore when important classes started to fill up, it wasn't a big deal, I could just take another important course.
Weeder Courses
Certain freshman classes, like Calculus and Chemistry, have a reputation for being "weeder courses". What's a weeder course? A course designed to be extra hard, in order to dunk the stupid/lazy kids so they drop out of college sooner rather than later. Even if you're not stupid or lazy, these courses won't be easy. So just take the AP classes so you can skip all that hassle. Then you can laugh at your roommate while they're up late writing big reports.
Increase Your GPA
Get that 5
Challenging Math is Fun
Be Able to Disprove Ridiculous Claims
About 2400 years ago, Xeno created Xeno's Paradoxes. These were situations where he "proved" impossible things. In the one below, he "proved" that a faster runner can never pass a slower runner, as long as the slower runner had a head start. Can you dismantle his proof? Probably not since you don't know enough calculus ;(
"In a race, the quickest runner can never overtake the slowest, since the pursuer must first reach the point whence the pursued started, so that the slower must always hold a lead." – as recounted by Aristotle, Physics VI:9, 239b15
In the paradox of Achilles and the Tortoise, Achilles is in a footrace with the tortoise. Achilles allows the tortoise a head start of 100 meters, for example. If we suppose that each racer starts running at some constant speed (one very fast and one very slow), then after some finite time, Achilles will have run 100 meters, bringing him to the tortoise's starting point. During this time, the tortoise has run a much shorter distance, say, 10 meters. It will then take Achilles some further time to run that distance, by which time the tortoise will have advanced farther; and then more time still to reach this third point, while the tortoise moves ahead. Thus, whenever Achilles reaches somewhere the tortoise has been, he still has farther to go. Therefore, because there are an infinite number of points Achilles must reach where the tortoise has already been, he can never overtake the tortoise.
Don't be Fooled
More and more, advertisers, ignorant talk show personalities, and politicians are making mathematical claims that are false or misleading. You can either learn the math and make your own decisions, or become part of someone else's agenda. Calculus and statistics are great for understanding the world.