Which calculus for civil engineering?

[iteachmine]

My dd16 is currently taking Precalc II at the local CC. She is a junior. The CC offer both applied calculus and calculus with analytical geometry 1 for the spring semester. Any thoughts on which course she should take next.

We will talk with her counselor sometime this week, but i'd like to get a little insight from the hive, especially if you/spouse are an engineer or have an engineering student. ;)

Thanks!

:bigear:

[laundrycrisis]

I am a (former) engineer.

 

My college didn't have "applied calculus". We had something called "business calculus" which was like a "lite" version of calculus. The full-on calc classes were 5 hours and there was calc I and calc II. Business Calc was only worth 3 hours and there was no second class for it.

 

I would find out which of these courses is the more rigorous, full calculus course, and take that.

[kiana]

I'd be almost certain that 'applied calculus' is calc-lite, and not recommended for an engineer.

[regentrude]

Definitely the more rigorous one. Without knowing the content, I would guess "calc with analytical geometry" sounds like the one you want.

[Dana]

At our cc, you could tell the more rigorous course by the prerequisites. The "real" calculus (the one you want) has trig as a requirement. The other one will only have college algebra as a requirement (and I agree with the others that that'll be the "applied" course - more application heavy in the hopes that students see where calculus is used).

 

Also, take a look at later math courses. The full calculus track will have one or two classes following it. The other course won't have courses that have it as a prereq.

 

At ours, analytical calculus is the course for anyone going on in science. We have "elementary calculus" as the other one.