21st post

This week we went over everything we have learned in Calculus so far. One of my major problems is not knowing when and where to plug numbers in sometimes. The one part of calculus i have a good handle on are the first and second derivative tests.

First derivative test:
-take the derivative of the original function
-solve for x (the values will be your critical values)
-set those values up into intervals between negative infinity and infinity
- plug in numbers between the intervals into the function
-this will show you when the function is increasing, decreasing, and you will find max's and mins.

Second derivative test:
-take the derivative of the original function twice
-solve for x values(critical values)
-set up into intervals between infinity and negative infinity
-plug in values between the intervals into the function
-this will show you where the graph is concave up and down, and where there is a point of inflection.

Another concept i have a decent handle on is related rates:
-Write down the given
-figure out which formula they want you to use
-plug in the given
-take the derivative
-solve for the unknown

One of my problems is that i do not always know what the formulas are that they want me to use. I'm going to try to study them over the weekend to see if that will help. Another concept i don't know really well is optimization and linearization. I know for linearization the key word is approximate but i'm not sure what to do to work the problem. I am actually getting better at looking at a graph and finding max and mins and point of inflections, but i still have to work on that too. I am still having trouble doing trig functions by hand even though i remeber my trig chart so that is another thing i'm going to have to work on. If anyone could help me with any of these that would be awesome. Thanks :)