“Most people see the world as a photograph,” Elias said, his chalk hovering over the slate. “They see a car at a specific mile marker, or a population at a specific census count. They see what is .” He pressed the chalk hard against the board.
“This,” he whispered, “is the beginning of everything. It is a . It doesn't tell you the value of y . It tells you that the way y changes is tied directly to what y is at that very moment. It’s the mathematics of growth, of decay, of the way heat leaves a cup of coffee or the way a virus ripples through a city.” An Introduction to Differential Equations: With...
“But the universe doesn’t sit still for portraits. The universe is a movie. And if you want to understand the movie, you don't look at the frames; you look at the between them.” He drew a single, elegant equation: dy/dx = ky . “Most people see the world as a photograph,”
He looked at his students, their faces a mix of confusion and dawning wonder. “This,” he whispered, “is the beginning of everything
“Calculus taught you how to take a snapshot,” Elias concluded, setting the chalk down. “Differential Equations will teach you how to predict the storm.”