When I was in high-school, I heard many times from various teachers over the years (like 3 or 4 times from 2 or 3 teachers over my entire high-schooling) that maths was really important and some 'ex-students' (from two different schools) had become millionaires from 'doing derivatives' for 'finance companies'.
Haha. They meant 'derivative' as in 'calculus'. Hahaha!
I eventually figured out what the source of my high-school teachers' confusion was some time after I'd left school. Perhaps a few ex-students had made a tonne of cash 'trading derivatives'.
I'm sorry Sir, but that hasn't got an awful lot to do with calculus.. :)
I should ring up a few of my old teachers and tell them how I'm 'integrating' in IT. I can just see them thinking that I'm sitting around with a pen and paper working out some complex math problem using Calculus.. :)
On a related note, I actually e-mailed my old maths department a year or two ago with a maths problem for fun. I didn't hear back from a single one of them. Not even to say hello. Fuck 'em.
John.