I'm a high school student studying calculus, and I'm having trouble understanding where I'll use it in real life. Can someone explain some practical applications for calculus?

I’m a high school student studying calculus, and I’m having trouble understanding where I’ll use it in real life. Can someone explain some practical applications for calculus?

If by real life, you mean when ordering a pizza or driving to the airport, you wouldn’t. But if you become a scientist or an engineer (surprise: you can become both), of course you will! In any case, my favorite is calculating (approximately) the square root of any number.

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Thanks for the response @Akash_Peshin! I’m curious, could you explain how scientists and engineers specifically use calculus in their work?

One very common application is right in front of you, when you drive a car. When you floor the accelerator, your car accelerates. What’s acceleration? It’s the RATE OF CHANGE of velocity of your car. That right there is an example of calculus in daily life.
There are tons of things that happen around us all the time due to calculus. The stock market, road traffic signals, economics - almost every field is influenced by calculus to some degree