Tutoring first-year calculus, finding derivatives is prominent. The tutor gives an example. The following is by my understanding. In yesterday’s post I mention finding relative extrema by solving for when the derivative is equal to zero. To begin with, how …
Tutoring calculus, you might hear curiosity about what it’s used for. The tutor mentions local extrema. In high school algebra, one can learn to expect that the graph y=2x^3 +10x^2 -11x -14 might have one relative minimum and one relative …
Tutoring calculus, derivatives are often visited. Yet, what is the derivative? In calculus, the derivative means the slope of a line tangent to the curve at that point. In other words, it means the direction the graph would follow from …
Tutoring calculus, everyday formulas students count on can often be verified. The tutor mentions the derivative of tanx. It’s true that (tanx)’ = (secx)^2. But why? Realizing tanx = sinx/cosx, then using the the quotient rule (u/v)’ = (vu’ – …
Calculus: why the derivative of tanx is (secx)^2 Read more →
The tutor shares how to find the derivative with the Sharp EL-520W. To my knowledge, the Sharp EL-520W won’t give the symbolic derivative. Rather (as you’d likely expect anyway), it evaluates a function’s derivative at the x value the user …
Calculator usage: finding the derivative with the Sharp EL-520W Read more →