Class Notes 08.29.2013

Calculus Notes from August 29

1. The first thing that we did was the POD. This problem was concerning Sec 5π / 4. To solve this you could convert to degrees using the conversion 180 / π. This gave you a degree measure of 225. This meant that it was in the third quadrant with a reference angle of 45 degrees. This means that that specific triangle of the bow tie is a 45-45-90 triangle. This also tells you that the two sides across from the 45 degrees are 1 unit and the hypotenuse is root 2. The corresponding trigonometry term for Secant is Cosine. Cosine of the reference angle is -1 / root 2 and so the flip of that (the Secant) would be negative root 2.          (I apologize for "root" but I don't know how to insert that symbol)
2. We then did a questionnaire with an array of personal and math related questions. This was used to see how students can have different interpretations of the same question.
3. Finally, we learned how do go from a distance graph, to a velocity graph, and then to an acceleration graph.
• With a distance versus time graph, you simply plot the points given of distance versus time.
• With the velocity versus time graph, you take the distance traveled per second and plot those points on the graph. So if on the distance graph at 1 second you were at 3 feet and at 2 seconds you were at 7 feet, then the velocity for 2 seconds would be 4 because you traveled 4 feet in that second.
• With the acceleration versus time graph, you draw a tangent line on the velocity graph at each point. Then you take the slope of that line in order to get the acceleration at that particular moment. So if you were to draw a tangent line at 1 second on the velocity graph and that line had a slope of 2, then you would plot an acceleration of 2 and time 1 second.

Math Lingo on our Blog

Students had a difficult time last year writing the "math lingo" parts of their posts, but now it looks like the problem has been solved!

If you need to use appropriate math notation in your blog post, just go to Daum Equation Editor.  This equation editor works the same way the one in Microsoft Word works.  Once you have typed in your equation you can save it as an image.

When you are typing your blog post, insert your image by clicking the picture icon and choosing the appropriate file.  Align it as you'd like and voila!

Ben

Just confirming I got on to this site

-Ben

Welcome to Blogging in Calculus

Welcome to the AP Calc blog!  This is going to be your resource for communicating with one another about what is going on in AP Calculus.  Every day a different student will be assigned to write a post about what we did in class that day.  We will then be able to refer back to this post to remind ourselves what we're learning about.  What was the major concept being covered that day?  What new skills did we learn?  What old skills are we building upon?  What questions do you still have?  What issues did the homework bring up?  

In addition to your assigned post, you are also welcome to add other posts and comments with your thoughts, insights, and concerns about particular lessons or concepts.  There will be other times when I post a question for you to answer about a lesson, topic, or problem.

Because we will be blogging in a public forum, it is important that we have good internet and blogging etiquette.  Your task before school starts is to comment on this post with at least one rule you think we should all follow as we embark on our blogging quest together.  Try to come up with different rules than those who have commented before you.  For now, I have turned on comment moderation, which means I will get an email for every comment you place on the blog.  As soon as I know we have all agreed to a set of blogging standards I will turn off comment moderation.

I hope this will be a rich resource for you to learn, create, reflect, ponder, and help one another on your quest to learn calculus.