Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe

by Steven H. Strogatz

the Infinity Principle. It will guide us on our journey just as it guided the development of calculus itself, conceptually as well as historically. I’m tempted to state it right now, but at this point it would sound like mumbo jumbo.

Dick.

how does its distance from the starting point increase as a function of time? It would be a horrible blunder to invoke the middle-school formula of distance equals rate times time because that formula is valid only when the rate—the car’s speed—is constant, which it certainly isn’t here. On the contrary, in this problem the car’s speed is ramping up at every instant. We are no longer in the sleepy world of constant speed. This is the thrilling world of constant acceleration.

I feel talked down to, because this "middle school blunder" is precisely where my head goes when faced with this type of problem.