Introversion

I remember using exponentials in GCSE Electronics to calculate a capacitor's voltage.

It's mostly just a mention until A-Levels. As you need calculus to understand exactly where e comes from.

I can't remember it being mentioned at any time before A levels. I have a suspicion that the exponential function doesn't appear until C2 (P1 is soooo 5 years ago), and exponential decay someway after that (I can't remember exponential decay featuring in maths at all pre-FP1), though it does appear in A-level chemistry and physics.

I did higher tier maths at GCSE but can't remember any mention of exponentials - although as someone said you need calculus to really understand most of it.
And as someone else said, we do "Core" maths now not "Pure" maths, and I think they were possibly first mentioned sometime last year but before we'd really done much calculus - I know that e wasn't mentioned until our teacher was reviewing the year and telling us what we were gonna do next year

estel wrote:(P1 is soooo 5 years ago)

More like 7 years, at least for me. Started it in my last year of secondary school back in 2001. Oh how time flies...

martin wrote:And as someone else said, we do "Core" maths now not "Pure" maths

The name and number of modules may be different but the content is almost exaclty the same, so la de da, I got the name wrong. But do you know what else was mentioned before? You're made of Epic FAIL.

3 Pure modules were stretched into 4 Core modules 3-4 years ago, I was amongst the first years to do it at my school.

ewanm wrote:3 Pure modules were stretched into 4 Core modules 3-4 years ago, I was amongst the first years to do it at my school.

Yeah, that would possibly be the academic year after I finished my ALevels.

Bad quote attributes are bad.

Don't know what you're talking about.

Man, until this semester, the last time I had seen an exponential was 7 years ago, when I was first an undergrad. Now, I am back in school getting better teaching credentials, and taking even more math! Funfunfun!

xander

briceman2 wrote:formulas

Formulae.

prophile wrote:

briceman2 wrote:formulas

Formulae.

Congratulations!! You win the Overconfident Pedant of the Month Award!

Dictionary: formula (fôr'myə-lə)
n., pl. -las or -lae (-lē').

.

Any mathematician knows it's formulae. Just because the general public can't spell...

Out of interest, which dictionary was that?

Oxford English gives:

formula

/formyool/

• noun (pl. formulae /formyoolee/ (in senses 1 and 2) or formulas) 1 a mathematical relationship or rule expressed in symbols. 2 (also chemical formula) a set of chemical symbols showing the elements present in a compound and their relative proportions. 3 a fixed form of words, as used conventionally or in particular contexts. 4 a method or procedure for achieving something. 5 before another noun denoting a rule or style followed without originality: a formula fantasy film. 6 a list of ingredients with which something is made. 7 an infant’s liquid food preparation based on cow’s milk or soya protein. 8 a classification of racing car: formula one.


So it's formulae when talking about mathematics and chemistry.

ewanm wrote:Any mathematician knows it's formulae. Just because the general public can't spell...

So it's formulae when talking about mathematics and chemistry.

OK, I'll bite. I'm bored.

Try these two googles: (the quotes are needed to prevent related parts of speech from contaminating the results)

mathematical "formulae" site:.edu ... 142,000 hits
mathematical "formulas" site:.edu ... 529,000 hits

Language is not static. Dictionaries eventually follow common usage. Thus unpopular spellings and pronunciations die routinely.

Perhaps formulae vs formulas is one of those silly British vs American English things. Dunno. But according to google, in English language academia, indexed worldwide, "formulas" currently rules 4:1. This includes books scanned by Google Books.

In any case, prophile was wrong to assume he was so right. (And wrong to waste bandwidth on such a small point.) Language often has more than one acceptable usage for any given word. In the past I'm sure the Latin suffix was more "proper", but in these days of texting, I'm surprised anyone stoops to nit picking variant spellings. Soon we'll all spell phonetically, and with an empasis on what's most easily typed into our handheld umbilicles. Only the French (and maybe the Quebecois) will escape, but the cost will be martial law imposed by the Language Police Francais.

And FWIW, here's the link to the online dictionary I quoted:
http://www.answers.com/formula?cat=technology&nafid=3

P.S. I was once a math major before I changed paths. I can assure you that most "real" mathemeticians don't give a damn about how words are spelled. And those that do care will get along just fine when reading papers with alternative spellings. Are you going to harrass the doctors of the world for their improper handwriting? None of the pharmacists seem to care. Why should you?