Post #5

So the fifth week of calculus was alot of work with justifications. The good thing is..justifications weren't the hard part, you just have to know what you did in order to get your answer and put the vocabulary to the test! =)
Well I've always known that any math is accumulative, but for Calculus..it's that much more. Everything we learned since last year was involved this week. I was overwhelmed, and to be honest I still am, but I plan on gettin alot of help this weekend with maybe a whole lot of explanations for how to start the problems.
My biggest problem is to know WHERE TO BEGIN.

We learned how to find an absolute MAX or MIN , also know as a global MAX/MIN:
1. First Derivative Test
2. Plug Critical Values into Original Function to get Y-values.
3. Plug Endpoints into Original Function to get Y-values.
4. Highest Y-value is Absolute MAX. Lowest Y-value is Absolue MIN.
Remember that absoute MAXs and MINs are written as a point or simply as the y-value.
Remember not to give x=_____ ...put the y value instead.

An Example would be:
Find the absolute MIN or MAX of f(x) = 2(x)^4 - 4(x)^3 on [0,5]::

so first, we take the first derivative which is:
8(x)^3 - 8(x)^2
we can take out an 8x^2 leaving us with:
8x^2[(x)^2-1]
now we set equal to zero giving us:
x = 0,-1,1...
using these numbers and the point we have in the problem we'll plug them all in for x and which ever is the smallest is the MIN and whichever is the largest is the MAX.
Our MIN would be [1,-2] and our MAX would be [5,750].

We also learned how to look at a graph of the original and then know where the MAX/MIN, or points of infliction are.

What I don't understand is anything with Differentability. Also, for just about everything we have to take a derivative and solve and stuff..i get that..but most of the time..[besides the vocabulary we had for the first thing we learned of original, first derivative, and second derivative]..i don't understand what the question is asking me, which makes it hard for me to begin anything.

Soo...ALL IN ALL..the fifth week of calculus was..well it was what everyone thinks calculus is..PRETTY TOUGH, wowzers, this week was hard for me.
I'd love some help with this, because after working on everything for almost 6 hours thursday i'm still not understanding it. so tomorrow [saturday] at 10:00 i'm goin to PJ's with Mal, Trina, and Ashley for sure..if anyone else is able to come to help us it would be appreicated! [by the way...we stayed for 4 hours .. struggling, but i think it sort of helped a bit] THEN..tonight [sunday] ricky had a study group at his house .. mher called and asked for my help so everyone came to stephanie's house until i got back home to try and help them...EVEN WITH the FULL WEEKEND of calculus..i'm sooo worried about the test tomorrow =(


ElliE