The essence of calculus

3Blue1Brown · 11.9M views · 2017-04-28 · 17:05

Open on YouTube ↗

If playback is restricted in your region, try opening the original video. Use Mark watched to add it to your marked videos.

Overview

The first video of 3Blue1Brown's Essence of Calculus series, which builds toward integrals, derivatives, and the fundamental theorem of calculus from a simple geometry question. It aims to make viewers feel they could have invented calculus themselves.

On Hacker News

A staple recommendation for anyone learning math, praised for visual intuition that makes memorized formulas make sense.

Recommended by 10 HN people across 9 months · HN mentions 2017–2025

Topics

Pure mathematics Recreational & visual math

What people said

tstrimple · 2023-06 · Strong recommendation
I took all the advanced math classes available to me in high school. This was despite me hating school and being a terrible student. But I enjoyed math as puzzles to solve. This was until I got into calculus. The teacher didn't have a strong grasp of the subject and more importantly it was just memorizing calculus formulas instead of understanding any sort of real-world application. In contrast, my AdMatics (advanced math and physics) class had us doing real-world physics based experiments. The application of the tools was immediately obvious. If I had a calculus lesson that broke down the problem space like this ( [VIDEO] ) I probably wouldn't have stopped my formal education in math at that point. When I discovered that video, all the formulas they tried to make me memorize started making a LOT more sense.
Read the original HN comment ↗

gibsonf1 · 2019-07 · Strong recommendation
I know of no better way to both learn, truly understand, and enjoy calculus than the visual approach of 3Blue1Brown in the Calculus series of videos: [VIDEO]
Read the original HN comment ↗

willurd · 2018-05 · Strong recommendation
Grant (the 3Blue1Brown guy) has an uncanny ability to explain difficult concepts and the fundamental intuition behind them. In many of his videos, he explains topics from the perspective of a person inventing that topic (such as in his first Calculus video [1]). I can't recommend his videos enough. [1] [VIDEO]
Read the original HN comment ↗

Sources

Video by 3Blue1Brown, played through YouTube.

HN Library · Source license

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

Views, duration and playback status refresh separately from the published catalog. When an update fails, existing data remains visible.

Selection checks

SaaS & AI candidates: Topic keywords do not match
Editor-approved picks: Editorial review is required

Rule matches identify candidates. They do not guarantee video quality or financial results.

About the library and its sources