The humanity of calculus | Jim Fowler | TEDxColumbus

Jim Fowler is a mathematician on a mission to bring more math to the world. In this talk, he shows how he replaced face-to-face lectures with short personal videos highlighting the human story of calculus. The classroom can become an open source community, where both students and teachers contribute to the curriculum.
Jim Fowler is an assistant professor in the department of mathematics at The Ohio State University, and he is the outreach director of the STEAM Factory-a grassroots interdisciplinary research network at Ohio State. Through the STEAM Factory, Jim brings mathematics to farmer’s markets.
His research interests broadly include geometry and topology, and more specifically focus on the topology of high-dimensional manifolds and
geometric group theory. In other words, he thinks in depth about highly symmetric geometric objects. Some of these objects are 16,777,216 dimensional!
His educational mission is similarly “big.” Jim led the creation of MOOCulus, a massive open online calculus course and a pun on ”cow”-culus. That course and its follow-ups have now had over 180,000 enrollments, meaning that thousands more people have learned more math. And that is the goal: to get more people doing more mathematics for math’s sake. Mathematics is useful for solving real-world problems, but the most important application of mathematics is to the
human spirit. Jim is leveraging online, adaptive tools and videos to tell that story.
Prior to his working at The Ohio State University, Jim received an undergraduate degree from Harvard University and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

[@jakefund6728]

I took Professor Fowler's coursera course in calculus 1 and 2. He had such a fantastic way of teaching that made all my previous misconceptions of math inbedded by bad math teachers in my past fade away. MOOCs and instructors like him are the future for learning. The community at large in these classes were fantastic, I felt I was right there in a class room getting instant results 24/7. Great for a person like me working a full time job and wants to look into another field. I am currently taking classes in computer and data science. Having completed over 15 or so online courses, Professor Fowler's course was a huge inspiration for me to continue learning. I am also trying this multivariable calculus class from MIT's open courseware, but I would really like to see another run of Professor Fowler's MOOC for multivariable calculus.

[@kisonecat]

Thank you, Jake! I am so happy to read this!

[@lovehalfblack9420]

+Jake Fund this is how I feel as well... very engaging lectures.

[@jimjohnston6848]

One rude comment from a very narrow minded math teacher in 1966 screwed me up for years. I am so glad I can finally enjoy math for how much beauty it contains.

[@QuratulainZainab]

This is so underrated. Thank you Prof. Jim Fowler! Loved the Calc One course. Moving on to Calc Two now.

[@shrimpboyho]

Jim Fowler is the reason I know calculus.

[@kisonecat]

This is really nice to hear! Thanks!

[@bammer150]

Jim Fowler Mr. Fowler, I just started my grade 11 a few days ago. I'm in the Indian curriculum, how do i make trigonometry more appealing to myself?

[@ivanbuljanvanboelken4676]

New J And contribute is calculus? You are of the wall. Go outside, try to impress students with that bs. You advocate high level of math to ordinary people? You never dared to do that proper,because you would be labeled as a foolish random ranting man. And for good reason too. Just stop enforcing this useless bs on to others, just because you like it. You just promote yourself. How can one thing being abstract exist on logic level? Abstract and logic are sharing anything. Giving meaning to something meaningless. Just cross cancel your self please and stop ranting about this, because no one cares.

[@annoliver964]

This was my favorite talk at TEDxColumbus this year. I was so excited to share this with my son, who is taking calculus right now. We really liked Jim's point about math being an end in itself, never heard math explained in that sense before.

[@bandarr3000]

Jim Fowler's energy is contagious.

[@NaturesFirstGreen]

Your calculus videos tell great stories. Thank you for making them!

[@satyashrayhasabnis3825]

Sir, you are truly a passionate communicator of the magnificence and beauty of Maths.

[@suchanun2153]

Thank you so much professor! I'm really grateful for your Calculus one course. Never have I loved math this much before! I'm going to start Calculus two now. Thank you so much for your effort and inspiration! - from Thailand

[@shawnandjeanettemussergrue2524]

You are a genius Jim! We are proud of you! Jeanette Musser and Shawn Gruenhagen

[@goprokingz]

This has seriously helped me and essence led me to signing up with Mooculus, which is also fantastic! Thanks Jim Fowler!!

[@maksymyatsura4220]

Your courses are a masterpiece. Sometimes it is very difficult to stop watching it. It's obvious that you like what you do, so do we, your audience. Waiting for your M2O2C2 on Coursera. I hope there will be a lot of courses with you. Good luck!

[@228nehalbhargav7]

Sir you have made calculus easy for me and this talk is just awesome☺☺

[@joliettraveler]

Fantastic lecture. Your videos really helped me with Calc 1 and 2.

[@thabanimadlala3578]

He is such a great speaker

[@sephirothjc]

I was in the first offering of that MOOC, I fell in love with calculus almost immediately and have been taking more math courses ever since, Jim is a brilliant lecturer and his message is really powerful, math is an ends in itself.

[@kisonecat]

Thank you José! It is great to hear that you've been doing lots of math!

[@jeffreyderek2982]

TNKS FOR BE THE REASON WHY ,I BACK TO SCHOOL, I LOVE MATH YOU, MADE SIMPLE AND EASY TO LEARD

[@DaveZiffer]

Fantastic talk! Too bad it has only 309 views as I write this. I always loved math because I could always see the underlying "story" but for me the boring subject was "social studies" - class after class of boring review of the facts & figures of each country's geography, economy, etc. with no point to it all. When in fact a related subject - history - when taught well, is one of the most engaging subjects because it has application for understanding the modern world and making projections about the future.

[@kisonecat]

Thanks David! I'm very glad you liked my talk. And speaking of history, I quite enjoyed en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connections_(TV_series) for relating some historical events to modern technology.

[@ahmgeek]

Jim Fowler I love you Jim, I hug you too :D

[@swavekbu4959]

Jim is so right. The concept of the limit, for instance, has existed FOREVER. It was only recently rigorized by Newton and company. It's not a "math concept." It's a concept, first and foremost, and you can find examples of limit thinking all throughout history. That's the first step to appreciating what's going on in math, is understanding that these concepts have been "brewing" for hundreds of years. That we have a tidy symbol for it now and language built around it is simply a result of rigorization. Or, shall we say, "simplification" so mathematicians can communicate with one another and it's not mushy. The concept is deeper than the symbol though. It has a story, it has an existence separate from the symbol to which it corresponds. Analogous to someone in humanities studying "love," it has a story. Mathematical objects have stories too, and once you appreciate the story, you no longer see mathematics as "math." You see it more as conceptual thinking, put into symbols. Rigorized. Has anyone ever realized how ridiculous and circular a proof often feels? We haven't "proved" anything, we've simply related the theorem to other objects within the system to keep a consistent epistemology. Once students understand that, the mystery fades away. Math is one of the most intellectually rich subjects, but the reason many students don't "understand it," it because they're looking for more in it than is actually there. All math can do, ultimately, is relate objects to one another, not unlike what is done in virtually every other field of inquiry. Some of it is born out of physical motivation, the rest out of pure analytical deduction. The ideas that give rise to these objects are extraordinarily complex, but the objects themselves are just the surface of years of conceptualizing and thinking by the human species. Case in point? Lines existed in nature and in our minds before they were defined mathematically. A "line" is a concept, it's an imperfect concept at that, but for convenience, we'll "rigorize" it into a *precise* mathematical symbolic definition to try to capture its "essence." "Love" was a concept too before they tried to define it. Imperfect definition, difficult to communicate. Those in the humanities are trying to relate objects too, much harder in a sense because the concepts are more elusive. At least math concepts are more "conveniently" defined. The rest is in the details, deduction, induction, etc., virtually all areas of investigation are trying to do the same thing. Philosophy first, which gives rise to mathematical thinking second. Keep that principle in mind, and you won't see math as different than any other language. It's just easier to grapple with because it's more precise. New mathematics is sometimes born out of "necessity," but so are concepts in other fields. Once a concept is introduced, it needs to fit in the system of knowledge. Want to know what math is and where it "fits in"? Study epistemology first, then you'll better appreciate what you're "DOING" in calculus, algebra, statistics, etc.

[@abhiapsunde]

Thank you Professor Fowler ! I'm relearning my calculus with your Coursera class. I always felt that there is something missing in the way I was first taught calculus [or maths in general]. And how did you make that sin(1/x) limit video with the magic dial and graph that changes ? is that toolset open too, I'm curious. I wish everything was taught this way ! Thank you so much !

[@ian.ambrose]

Hey that's the man who taught me mathematics for free! Love you, Professor Jim.

[@swavekbu4959]

This is why teaching the history and philosophy of mathematics is so important. Students want to know WHY, they don't just want to be bombarded with material for which they have no sense of its origin or starting point. But for this, you have to delve into the philosophy and history of the subject. Why are we doing proofs? What IS a proof? A discussion of the nature of mathematical proof can take up 3 hours, easy. How are things "proven" in other areas of investigation? How does mathematical proof compare? What students need more to understand and appreciate mathematics is a PHILOSOPHY OF MATHEMATICS course. That way, they see the big picture, understand the why and how, and see math as an evolution of concepts that were eventually rigorized to facilitate communication among practitioners. Much mathematics has its roots in cognition, and how much of the empirical world can be described by that cognition. Solving math problems is HARD, but what's even harder is if you're trying to solve an equation without first understanding the why and where of equations. Why do equations exist? What IS an equation? It's much more than what is revealed in chapter 1 of the calculus book. Mathematical thinking exists in virtually every discipline. Mathematics has a more rigorized language. But the detection of patterns, similarities, equivalencies, is EVERYWHERE. Jim knows what he's talking about, but so many mathematicians don't, because they are simply "doing mathematics" without an appreciation of the bigger picture. You have to step outside of mathematics and call it something else before you can truly appreciate what mathematics is, why it is so popular, and why all the fuss. PHILOSOPHY and HISTORY of mathematics.

[@mhdalimoraly2642]

Put Simply, Professor Fowler's way of teaching calculus in MOOC must be adopted as standard educational method for teaching calculus and other math branches. Totally Innovative and revolutionary approach. "Yes, Mathematics is useful",12:28, and thanks to his method: "Yes, now all students can understand and love math"

[@benedictsulteras2924]

Thank you prof

[@cozmonauts932]

dudes such a savage he deadass made his TED Talk a whole advertisement

[@ThomasMusings]

Nice talk. There is a certain beauty to formulas, but I don't know if I'll ever love Math.

[@ClaudeCOULOMBE]

Prof Fowler is passionate about maths and his passion is contagious. He would be able to let enjoy maths to sea urchins if their system of perception was able to appreciate Prof Fowler's videos. My apologies to echinoderms.

[@MetGuy9966]

"The pleasure of finding things out" Sounds like Richard Fenymann.

[@KatwereJames]

like you Jim, and thanks

[@khalidsalimsalim2974]

Thank you very much for the foregoing of the effort to develop this science, which is the mother of science

[@cheesecake7434]

*What is the Fanfiction of Mathematics?* is not a question I expected to think about today but thank you! My thoughts towards calculus may slowly be turning from experienced pessimism into interest...

[@Troglodyte2021]

Did he remove his courses on Coursera? Why?

[@v.r.kildaire4063]

9+((n*6)*10^-3)+((n^2)*10^-6), and then i looked at the equation and realized oh... it simplify to 3.00n^2

[@psydunk1]

Calculus One Calculus Two M2O2C2

[@Scotty.G]

"point three three, repeating of course" got no reaction in the video or in the comments yet. C'mon guys, Leeeeeroy Jeeenkins!

[@HimanshuSingh-gs5fg]

thank you sir for making mathematics interesting. In 21st century the rockstars will be replaced by moocStar mathematicians for example justin bieber will be replaced by Jim Fowler the moocStar.

[@rushabhsanghavi9281]

When does he say math is an end in itself?

[@hassanshabbir8254]

10:30

[@umikohiromi6015]

Less than 500 views? 10 hours of Nyan Cat - 70 million views. Humanity is a joke.

[@marklondon9004]

I use you as an example to shame my lecturers when they deliver a poor lecture.

[@mangakasaide2166]

cope

[@mangakasaide2166]

i will still check out his online courses tho lmao

[@qualquan]

said nothing useful

[@vineethonkan]

I printed out about 20 pages of celestial mechanics, and to better understand the math behind it, I took your course...thx for being a good teacher Mr. Fowler.

[@swadhanandy9666]

Celestial mechanics seems like a very interesting subject

[@vineethonkan]

@@swadhanandy9666 celestial mechanics is basically physics of planetary motion...