I never said this. What are you talking about?

The gradient of any line is mx + c = y, that’s grade school math. That’s all you used to work it out and you’re claiming you used calculus.

Alas, the answer for the coveted star was:

Multiply the equation with d/dt: (d/dt) * t*sqrt(26) = dt * sqrt(26) / dt.

dts cancel out, therefore the derivative is sqrt(26).

Still a very unnecessary (and simple) application of calculus, but at least it would’ve shown that’s whatcha did.

I mean, sure, it’s an arguable position, but an actively unhelpful use of language. You’re arguing that anybody that knows about gradients (or even just like, how two still objects don’t move) knows calculus, therefore most people must know calculus by like age 8.

You’re not employing the tools of calculus in any meaningful or non-negligible way. You’re just using basic newtonian laws and claiming you used complex quantum mechanics waveforms. Show your actual working out of the derivative just like you did with the basic algebra and I’ll concede and give you the star sticker.

Why does China becoming the world manufacturer help? I can make the most popular restaurant in the world by selling free food, if I had enough capitali I could outcompete every other restaurant in the world, but I’m still not benefitting if I’m not getting in enough money to replace all the food I give away.

This makes the least sense to me - Why does an economy needs to produce more than it consumes? Why can’t those goods go to its own people? Why does another country’s magic money paper mean it’s now okay for your country’s poor to consume your own goods, when you could just give them your goods to start with? I get the idea of being an indispensible and resilient economy though.

In Victoria 3 I never ran into that employment issue, I only ever needed more workforce, not less (though I still ran into late-game profit crises). If people were so poor they weren’t buying luxury goods, I could just build more farms which gave them low-wage jobs and lowered the price of food, so exporting was never ever needed. I never saw an advantage to exporting goods except when they were byproducts I didn’t need so much (ie automobiles, luxury items, etc.), I assume because forex wasn’t implemented. The only other population issues were running into shortages of local strategic resources.

Agreed. But even then, who the hell walks away from a point with linear acceleration? That’s really hard to picture.

Huh? You took the derivative by taking ‘t’ off the end, that ain’t calculus.

I mean, precisely. It’s Pythagoras and linear algebra, this is not calculus.

It has no relation to differential calculus, calculus relates to continuous change. Pythagoras could’ve worked this out about 2000 years prior to the discovery of calculus. You’re not finding the gradient of an effectively infinitesimal point on an ever-changing curve.

So the imbalance means China is accumulating money and/or ownership of things globally?

Social shit is very hard to do, but these are good suggestions, especially when you’re not used to it. Socialising in our society is not an easy thing and I 110% empathise with the struggle. If you genuinely cannot find a single org/class/group that even slightly aligns with your interests, you may just have to put up with doing something you’re not passionate about in order to meet others.

I’m extremely bad at social stuff, but found a local walking group easy because it means silences aren’t awkward, talk can just happen as/when it happens, or I can even just say very little if I’m not feeling it. I’m not particularly into walking, and I’m not that good at talking, but it’s a way for me to be part of a group, have an occasional fun chat when the moment arises, and get exercise in.