Calculus applied to architecture?

[kimchee918]

Does calculus involve any physics problems that might relate to architecture?

I've seen some calc problems about some physics-related problems but I was wondering if they involve something like shapes.

Also, if you know the difference between calculus Ab and calculus BC, should I take Ab or BC (I'm going into my senior year in high school). I've already taken half of calc Ab because of my pre-calc class I'm taking right now so yeah, if you know what it's like.......

[insane_alien]

calculus is used in the mechanical side of it(calculating stress concentrations and such) though i'm not sure how big a role this plays as i have never studied architecture. i have no idea what those calculus courses are so somebody from the USA'll need to help you on that.

[Ozone]

IIRC, the classes you would take in a university Arch. program that relate to this are called "structures". These courses are arranged by material (eg. steel, metal fab.; concrete; etc.) and deal with stress distribution, inertial moments, center of gravity, etc. They represent the "engineering component" of the degree. These courses frequently "weed-out" students, differentiating the "designers" from the Architects (who, like engineers, must become licensed after an intern period following the degree, which is a 5yr program).

 

They use aweful units such as the "kip" or kilopound (which would be 1/2 of a ton). Yech.

 

The calculus required was not the 2 sem, 10Hr variety required of math and science majors (or 16hr for most Chemists involving 3D and diff eq.; or 22 if you also count thermodynamics and quantum).

 

I think that the one-shot, 4hr course was sufficient.

 

Cheers,

 

O3

[kanzure]

FYI- Cal BC typically requires AB beforehand. But if you want to gun it, just study like crazy and make sure you *know* each of the topics thoroughly. A good idea would be to memorize (or at least remember how to derive) 100 theorems in calculus, as well as differentiation and integration methods to go along with it. And trigonometric substitution techniques, that's important.

 

- Bryan

[Sisyphus]

You do NOT need calc AB before calc BC. In my school it wasn't even possible to take both. The difference between them is that BC covers roughly 50% more material, while still including everything in AB. Thus you have less time on each subject, and it is therefore more difficult.

 

Also, different people learn differently, so do what works, but for myself I found the memorizing aspect to be less important and actually understanding and visualizing the concepts to be more important the faster you go, because it means new things make sense more quickly and are more easily remembered. I didn't consciously set out to memorize anything my whole time, and I got a perfect score on the BC exam. But again, do what works for you, and please don't slack off because some weirdo on the internet (any of us) told you to.

[Mr Skeptic]

They use aweful units such as the "kip" or kilopound (which would be 1/2 of a ton). Yech.

 

A light at the end of the tunnel! perhaps we can get them using centiyards and kiloyards to measure distance next

[insane_alien]

if your going to use SI prefixes you might as well fo the whole hog and use the full SI system like the rest of the world. Megagrams w00t!