"While still in high school and having just learned the geometric significance of the first and second derivatives of a function, I asked my father what significance there might be to derivatives of higher order than two. Naturally, he mentioned that the fourth derivative of the deflection curve of a beam would be proportional to the intensity of the load distribution responsible for this deflection. I learned a good deal more about this subject during my first year at the university as a student in my father's mechanics course."
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Original Language: English
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Sources
, Selected Works in Applied Mechanics and Mathematics (1996) p. 1, "Beams".
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Calculus
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Calculus
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