BOB for Applications of Derivatives

Yay!!! I'm the first BOBber. Anyways, this unit was quite interesting. Quite a bit of the stuff we did in this unit was already taught to us by Ms Karras about a month or two ago so it wasn't that tough.

My clear-as-crystal parts were with the First and Second Derivative Tests to find critical points and inflection points. I already knew about this back at Chapter 2 when I was experimenting with the derivatives.

The more muddier parts came when we had to apply those tests to the optimization questions. It took me a while to get well at it. I started understanding these questions when I had a moment of clarity. I did not have one in the shower, but I did have one when I was working on the Optimization homework. I started see how each formula (area, volume, etc) were related to each other and can be found quite easily through some algebraic massaging and gymnastics. Once I saw what was going on I began solving the questions at a much faster pace and with less and less mistakes. The important thing with word problems is the time it takes to solve the questions. Sure, some might be long but we have to see in which part of the solution can we change or remove to decrease the amount of time it takes in getting to the correct answer. This sounds like a possible optimization question for DEV. I CALL DIBS ON IT FOR MY GROUP. NO ONE TAKE THE IDEA!!!

I noticed that the big thing with the questions in this unit was the way that was required to answer the questions. We had to specifically state which test(s) were used in obtaining the answer. The way that we used the variables were quite important as well.

The Mean Value Theorem was quite simple as well so I didn't have much worries with that area.

I noticed something when we were working with the Antiderivatives the other day. It isn't in the chapter so does that mean we won't have to worry about it for the test?

Good luck everyone and brace yourselves for Mr. K's homework check. I got to get back to finishing my Chem Lab Write-Up.

Bye bye =D