samsonizzle

This is an explanation of integration from someone who actually intuitively understands what integration is. I don't think I met anyone until I was in my masters that actually understood it well enough to explain it in simple terms like this.

What if you were filling the Millennium Falcon up with a fluid and you wanted to know how full it was after you poured various amounts of fluid into it. With integration, you could estimate how full it would be at any given point without actually having to fill it with said fluid.

I guess what I was attempting to get at is being able to explain that in terms that are understandable to the casual observer is not as common. Anyone can memorize a definition but being able to phrase it in a way that anyone can understand it to some degree reveals a teacher's understanding of the subject, and with respect to integrals, I didn't meet someone that could break it down to that level until graduate school.

This likely says a lot about about how small of an emphasis mathematics was in the program I was in, which is a major shortcoming in my opinion.