Why Newton’s method?
When I took a business calculus class my sophomore year of college I could not stand calculating (first) derivatives or even integrals. I found them ‘useless’ and couldn’t foresee how I could possibly apply this to my eventual career in business.
It wasn’t until my intermediate micro-economics class where I learned to appreciate the ability to calculate approximate point where the rate of change (rather, lack thereof) of a curve could be explained with a linear straight-line. Especially important for finding the exact quantity where marginal-costs are minimized, i.e. where MC rate of change = 0.
The above was, in a way, my awakening of my own ignorance about how things relate to one another or how two seemingly different set of ideas can potentially explain each other. A curved line could never be explained by a linear line - at least that’s what my pre-micro economics version of myself believed.
I remember that moment vividly and I try to remind myself to keep the perspective of realizing I do not know what I don’t know.
Wow. Now I feel like a dummy.
The only Newtons I know are Fig and Apple.
They have a strawberry one as well. Delicious cookie