hmm. I may solve a minor calculus problem by instead using multithreaded python very slowly

why figure out what integral you need to evaluate when you could spend 30 minutes evaluating a python script?

I've been out of school for 16 years and I understand multithreading better than I understand calculus, and that's sad

code running. in 30 minutes I'll find out if it worked

yup! worked fine, and so did the secondary run.

it just took an hour, but it meant I didn't have to hurt my brain by trying to properly remember calculus

not to imply that calculus is worthless or anything. it's very useful. I just don't have it in my brain anymore, and putting it back in there would hurt right now

My point is that I'm not doing the "lol when will we ever use this" thing.

anyway some people have suggested I could use X or Y or Z to do the calculus for me, but that's missing the point. Actually evaluating the formula isn't the hard part: figuring out how to set up the problem is

it's a slightly complicated set of interacting functions in a program that effectively model the movement of a particle that's accelerating at different speeds

the tricky part would be successfully and accurately translating the different functions into simple math: that requires a sort of math-skill that I haven't practiced in a while and would be afraid I'd get wrong. There's no answers in the back of the book to confirm if I'm right or wrong here.

so instead of figuring out the math the proper way, I wrote a relatively simple python script that just simplified the program I'm trying to do math on. It just contained the parts that do the acceleration/velocity/position, and then I ran it. in real time. and observed the result