The Classroom

i was thinking it was something about symbolizing extremely high levels of confidence or something.... arrogance, maybe?

i don't know. i make things up sometimes

oh I was mostly right. I had the meaning a bit confused with greek figures and divine right of kings and shit. I suppose the iamheavensent is technically more correct. pfft, whatever, fascists

i don't know if i'm right....

i wasn't even going to make a guess because i didn't think i was even close, so i'd say give it cghost...

by the way, was i even close to an answer you would deem correct on the derivative question?

you were correct with your answer though, more than I was (though mine was more of a wording problem).

I don't know, what was it?

IAmHeavenSent wrote:

i don't know exactly what definition you want...

but it's an instantaneous rate, isn't it?... such as the derivative of a curve is rise per run, or slope....

... if you insist, i can take credit. i'm just saying that if you hadn't have said anything, i wouldn't have tried or gotten it. ... yours was pretty close, i think... if i actually know what i'm talking about.

it symbolizes a high level of confidence and the belief that you can become a divine figure. You are more correct than I am

***oh, in my original answer, i said it wrong. I meant "instantaneous rate of change"

... oooh. i just wasn't even sure if i had the right idea anyway. i can see where your answer comes in a bit in (for lack of a better word) extreme situations.

I had it sort of confused with something else. There's another meaning for it in greek mythology where if you were a servant to one of the gods you got the symbol, but that's where I got confused.

yeah a derivative is an instantaneous rate of change. Now can you define it mathematically?

as in the formula?

It's a function, not a formula, but yes

that's totally what i meant to say.

hmmm... this could be wrong, but here goes:

lim [f(x+h)^2-f(x)]/h = f'(x)
h->0

that's how we did in in business cal, but in ap cal we used "delta x" instead of h....

f(x+h) isn't squared. Other than that it's right. Delta x, h, doesn't matter what you use. h is easier because then you're not getting x's confused and shit.

damn, so close...

i think i threw the squared in because when i'd plug the (x+h) into the function it was often into some sort of x^2 function..... so i just remember having to square (x+h) a lot.

yep that'd be why. Squard function I could see coming up alot in commerce. Models efficiency and maximization of profit and shit really well.

lol I remember on an exam in calc 2 I forgot the integral of 1/(1+x^2). I was sure it was inverse tan, but couldn't remember, so I wound up trying to take the derivative of inverse tan by hand on the back of the exam to be sure (I finished the test in 10 minutes, we had an hour for it so I had the time). Wound up giving up though, also wound up being right so it didn't matter.

oh gosh. i am not very fond of the trig functions involvement. something about it is just really hard for me to remember. i'd always try to do some sort of backward crazyness to make sure i was right and usually ended up getting so confused i'd give up.

in geometry i once turned a 5-step proof into 11 or 13....

trig derivatives are easy. Simple mnemonic device: if it starts with a c, the derivative is negative:

d/dx sin(x) = cos (x)
d/dx cos (x) = -sin(x)
d/dx tan(x) = (sec(x))^2
d/dx csc(x) = -csc(x)cot(x)
d/dx sec(x) = sec(x)tan(x)
d/dx cot(x) = -(csc(x))^2

wow I'm rusty, I'd forgott csc, sec and cot. Though you don't use those much with derivatives anyway

i think the only ones i could have told you were sin, cos, and tan... haha

it all sounds familiar, but i couldn't have told you right off the top of my head.

I don't really think you're ever going to have to remember those, or even know them until you start integration, which I assume you haven't yet?

Nerds.

says the guy who makes electronic ambient music

The new guy needs to come and so we can see if he accepts Shea's answer.

How is that nerdy?

Loxxikus wrote:

How is that nerdy?

electronic music is the epitome of nerdy

greenshoes wrote:

The new guy needs to come and so we can see if he accepts Shea's answer.

she's right, we should just carry on

Got to use quotes here... and spell his name correctly.