Is calculus necessary or helpful for military service.

**roffelskates** · 09 Jul 09, 00:31

I'm doing my final year of high school and I'm leaving with probably a good assumption that I'm heading to a military career. My question is, is should I take a course in calculus. Is there any job in the military that requires it or would come in handy.

Please and thanks.

**silentsam** · 09 Jul 09, 00:41

I didn't study calculus in high school, and never needed it during my time in the service. I would still encourage you to take it for one simple reason: you don't know what the future will bring. You may end up in the military, in a position where calculus is unnecessary; you might end up in a position where it would be helpful; and you may very well never even serve in the military. Unless there is something very useful to take in the place of the calculus course, it would be a waste to not take it.

**Shek** · 09 Jul 09, 02:44

If you plan to go to West Point or any of the service academies, you'll end up taking three semesters of calculus. It's the fundamental math needed for nearly all the sciences. Don't settle for less - go ahead and challenge yourself. That's the type of person that the military is looking for and not the person who only wants to do the bare minimum.

**Officer of Engineers** · 09 Jul 09, 03:04

Take it. Though on paper, CF's non-commissioned members do not need it (they're being presented with boiler plate equations), those who can understand how the equation works will rise in the PMOs (Project Management Offices). Those who cannot are advised to seek other employment soon.

Officers will need calculus as a matter of course requirements for their degree.

**Parihaka** · 09 Jul 09, 03:23

I don't understand how you can get through every-day life let alone military service without it....

**TopHatter** · 09 Jul 09, 03:52

Originally Posted by Parihaka

I don't understand how you can get through every-day life let alone military service without it....

)

I do it VERY easily. All I need to know in my job is "Is this microchip genuine or a re-marked counterfeit"?

**Ratus Ratus** · 09 Jul 09, 08:12

Originally Posted by TopHatter

)

I do it VERY easily. All I need to know in my job is "Is this microchip genuine or a re-marked counterfeit"?

Yuck!.. Serious binary stuff! 1 or 0.

**Ratus Ratus** · 09 Jul 09, 08:16

Originally Posted by roffelskates

I'm doing my final year of high school and I'm leaving with probably a good assumption that I'm heading to a military career. My question is, is should I take a course in calculus. Is there any job in the military that requires it or would come in handy.

Please and thanks.

Your problem, assumption. I was under the impression don't assume till its happened.
So take the calculus. That allows for plan B which I gather you have.

**Chogy** · 09 Jul 09, 13:40

A lot of those courses, both now and in college (service academy or otherwise), may have subject material that is not immediately useful, but it does show that you have a natural intelligence and a willingness to learn... it elevates you above the pack.

I took plenty of calculus both in high school and at the AFA, hated it intensely, got through it, and never used it again. But the fact that I could get through it showed something to the important people who make the decisions!

**TopHatter** · 09 Jul 09, 13:59

Originally Posted by Ratus Ratus

Yuck!.. Serious binary stuff! 1 or 0.

Basically yeah. Although every once in awhile, there's a slight gray area...drives me nuts.

But I think now I've figured out why this job is so much fun for me: It appeals to my binary nature.

**astralis** · 09 Jul 09, 16:59

good for stretching the mind; it encourages flexible and quick thinking necessary in the military.

**~~SnowLeopard~~** · 10 Jul 09, 07:37

Originally Posted by Ratus Ratus

Yuck!.. Serious binary stuff! 1 or 0.

Said in jest, I hope ................. for I thought computer math was that, only to find out that that discrete math, essentially predicting what state variables will be after a few hundred thousands runs of a program, was very much like differential equations.

Now, I had to struggle thru discrete, but it probably would have been even harder had I not had three semesters of calculus.

Basically to the topic: if you want to be in the US Navy, if you want to be an officer, you will be expected in college to take at least 3 semesters of calculus and two semesters of calculus based physics. Taking calculus in high school won't replace that.....but it will make it easier.

If you don't take calculus and then decide you want a military based scholarship, you will have shot yourself in the foot for a lot of them.
______________________________________
("Let's apply some old high school geometry to this problem,"--Captain Paul Blanchard about the situation keeping them out of the orientation for a DSRV docking, (w,stte), "Gray Lady Down")

**roffelskates** · 10 Jul 09, 11:20

It sounds like Calculus is the way to go, but I don't intend to be in military all my life. I plan for 3 years in Canadian Armed forced, and 7 years in Marine Corps on the US end. I don't plan to become an commissioned officer, the highest my aims are at Corporal or Sergent if I'm lucky. After that I plan to go to a civilian life of a career of Journalism and maybe become a historian after that. None of which Calculus comes into equation of my life.

**Shek** · 10 Jul 09, 12:09

Originally Posted by roffelskates

It sounds like Calculus is the way to go, but I don't intend to be in military all my life. I plan for 3 years in Canadian Armed forced, and 7 years in Marine Corps on the US end. I don't plan to become an commissioned officer, the highest my aims are at Corporal or Sergent if I'm lucky. After that I plan to go to a civilian life of a career of Journalism and maybe become a historian after that. None of which Calculus comes into equation of my life.

If you want to be a good journalist, then chances are that you'll need a bachelor's degree at a minimum, and then if you want to do in-depth reporting on just about any topic, then you'll need the calculus as a building block course for the advanced courses in your major. No, you won't report on calculus equations, but understanding partial differentiation and total differentiation are skills required for a whole slew of academic topics.

**Kevin Brown** · 10 Jul 09, 22:23

Originally Posted by SnowLeopard

Said in jest, I hope ................. for I thought computer math was that, only to find out that that discrete math, essentially predicting what state variables will be after a few hundred thousands runs of a program, was very much like differential equations.

Now, I had to struggle thru discrete, but it probably would have been even harder had I not had three semesters of calculus.

Basically to the topic: if you want to be in the US Navy, if you want to be an officer, you will be expected in college to take at least 3 semesters of calculus and two semesters of calculus based physics. Taking calculus in high school won't replace that.....but it will make it easier.

If you don't take calculus and then decide you want a military based scholarship, you will have shot yourself in the foot for a lot of them.
______________________________________
("Let's apply some old high school geometry to this problem,"--Captain Paul Blanchard about the situation keeping them out of the orientation for a DSRV docking, (w,stte), "Gray Lady Down")

So you have to take Calc even if you want to be an intelligence officer?

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