When I was about thirteen, the library was going to get 'Calculus for the Practical Man.' By this time I knew, from reading the encyclopedia, that calculus was an important and interesting subject, and I ought to learn it.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
From the age of 13, I was attracted to physics and mathematics. My interest in these subjects derived mostly from popular science books that I read avidly.
I like - I love calculus. I love linear algebra, probability and statistics, that kind of stuff. I just really like that.
Newton, of course, was the inventor of differential calculus so his place in the tale is quite special.
I enjoyed mathematics from a very young age. At the beginning of college, I had this illusion, which was kind of silly in retrospect, that if I just understood math and physics and philosophy, I could figure out everything else from first principles.
At the age of 12, I developed an intense interest in mathematics. On exposure to algebra, I was fascinated by simultaneous equations and read ahead of the class to the end of the book.
I was particularly good at math and science.
I found a discarded textbook on calculus in a wastebasket and read it from cover to cover.
I did not take a calculus course until my second year of college.
My first degree came years before my second. I had wanted to be a physicist, but I flunked calculus.
I was more interested in skating and the girls and traveling than I was in calculus.