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#calculus#derivatives#integrals

The essence of calculus

3Blue1Brown

8.7M subscribers • 42 videos on Hallway

YouTube
  • Recommended by 10 people: 10 on Hacker News.
  • A classic. People kept recommending it from 2017 to 2025.
  • Presented by Grant Sanderson, creator of 3Blue1Brown
  • Linked in the description3b1b/manim
  • May be out of date. Uploaded 9 years ago, in an area where tools change fast.

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

11M views9 years ago10 recommendations

Computer scienceAI and machine learningMath for programmersMath for machine learning

Grant Sanderson introduces the core intuition behind calculus, showing how geometric problems lead naturally to derivatives, integrals, and the fundamental theorem.

What might it feel like to invent calculus? Help fund future projects: patreon.com/3blue1brown An equally valuable form of support is to share the videos. Special thanks to these supporters: 3b1b.co/lessons/essence-of-calculus#thanks In this first video of the series, we see how unraveling the nuances of a simple geometry question can lead to integrals, derivatives, and the fundamental theorem of calculus. Thanks to these viewers for their contributions to translations Dutch: @LFWarsen, Lauri Warsen Hebrew: Imri, Omer Tuchfeld Hindi: Vinayak Hungarian: homok43 Italian: @Deye27, @hi-anji, alberto alessi Korean: Hana Seo Portuguese: redkk123 Spanish: @agustin-j Vietnamese: @ngvutuan2811, ngvutuan ------------------ These animations are largely made using manim, a scrappy open source Python library: github.com/3b1b/manim If you want to check it out, I feel compelled to warn you that it's not the most well-documented tool, and it has many other quirks you might expect in a library someone wrote with only their own use in mind. Music by Vincent Rubinetti. Download the music on Bandcamp: vincerubinetti.bandcamp.com/album/the-music-of-3blue1brown Stream the music on Spotify: open.spotify.com/album/1dVyjwS8FBqXhRunaG5W5u If you want to contribute translated subtitles or to help review those that have already been made by others and need approval, you can click the gear icon in the video and go to subtitles/cc, then "add subtitles/cc". I really appreciate those who do this, as it helps make the lessons accessible to more people. ------------------ 3blue1brown is a channel about animating math, in all senses of the word animate. And you know the drill with YouTube, if you want to stay posted about new videos, subscribe, and click the bell to receive notifications (if you're into that). If you are new to this channel and want to see more, a good place to start is this playlist: 3b1b.co/recommended Various social media stuffs: Website: 3blue1brown.com Twitter: twitter.com/3Blue1Brown Patreon: patreon.com/3blue1brown Facebook: facebook.com/3blue1brown Reddit: reddit.com/r/3Blue1Brown

Why it's here

10 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended as the best and most intuitive visual introduction to understanding calculus fundamentals.

willurdon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ask HN: How do I learn math/physics in my thirties?”

Grant (the 3Blue1Brown guy) has an uncanny ability to explain difficult concepts and the fundamental intuition behind them. In many of his videos, he explains topics from the perspective of a person inventing that topic (such as in his first Calculus video 1). I can't recommend his videos enough. 1 link to this video

gibsonf1on Hacker News • Recommends

On “Calculus for Beginners and Artists (2003)”

I know of no better way to both learn, truly understand, and enjoy calculus than the visual approach of 3Blue1Brown in the Calculus series of videos: link to this video

tstrimpleon Hacker News • Recommends

On “What I Learned from Two Years of Teaching High School CS”

…mportantly it was just memorizing calculus formulas instead of understanding any sort of real-world application. In contrast, my AdMatics (advanced math and physics) class had us doing real-world physics based experiments. The application of the tools was immediately obvious. If I had a calculus lesson that broke down the problem space like this ( link to this video ) I probably wouldn't have stopped my formal education in math at that point. When I discovered that video, all the formulas they tried to make me memorize started making a LOT more sense.…

hatsunearuon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Georgia Tech's free math textbook collective”

link to this video check out this series (he also has a really good one on linear algebra) After that, I'd check out Khan academy.

hiaux0on Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ask HN: How to self-learn math?”

…xpand from there. Be it to watch his maths fundamental ((1)) series 0,1 or just rewatch. ((1)): As in any other things, knowing your fundamentals is significant to the understanding of a topic. It won't help you at all if you can apply (copy paste) some machine learning techniques if you don't know about linear algebra at all. 0: link 1: link to this video…

kebmanon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Math Basics for Computer Science and Machine Learning [pdf]”

Well, there's always 3Blue1Brown: link Take a look at his course, Essence of Calculus: link to this video I'm not fluent in math, but I find it fascinating to watch, for some reason. NancyPi is also great: link Oh, and don't forget the Mathologer: link What a great guy! While I'm at it, go watch Numberphile too: link Is there anyone I forgot? :D

jloson Hacker News • Recommends

On “Euler's Formula: A Complete Guide”

…notation used in calculus to show the relation of one type of function, called a derivative to another. f and f' are related. How, though, is better explained by taking calculus. - An eigenfunction exists in a system of equations. Think of it like a 'balance' point. Linear Algebra will help make sense of this term. Resources - Essence of Calculus: link to this video - Essence of Linear Algebra: link Those 2 video's will do a good job of giving you the 'intuition' behind Calculus and Linear Algebra. Like programming, though, you just have to actually work some problems out by hand for the stuff to sink in. Fo…

loftyalon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Calculus Made Easy (1910)”

I would recommend watching 3Blue1Bown series on calculus. Its very easy to understand and somes with some great visuals. link to this video

yCombLinkson Hacker News • Recommends

On “Proof You Can Do Hard Things”

Khan Academy is great, but there are also an incredible number of great youtube videos. I would watch this 3blue1brown video to see if you like his style : link to this video

inetknghton Hacker News • Recommends

On “AWS CEO says using AI to replace junior staff is 'Dumbest thing I've ever heard'”

> This was boring to most students as they had no clue why the formalism was invented in the first place. > The history of how concepts were invented for the problems faced is far more motivating to students to build a mental model than canned capsules of knowledge. That's something I really like about 3blue1brown, and he says it straight up 0: > My goal is for you to come away feeling like you could have invented calculus yourself. That is, cover all those core ideas, but in a way that makes clear where they actually come from, and what they really mean, using an all-around visual approach. 0: link to this video

mettamageon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Calculus Made Easy”

Mostly link to this video and Khan Academy I just use YouTube a lot and ChatGPT a lot too. ChatGPT is a pretty okay tutor at high school / early college level math