December 03, 2006

BOB # 4

Well, what "new thing" did I take away from this unit? I guess it's this: that we always have to keep our eyes on our goals.

This applies to many things. For example, you could think of it as what we want to do with our lives. It's important that we're confident when facing the future, or it might eat us, right? I think the answer's yes. This also applies to Calculus.

I think the best mark I got in this class is in our derivatives unit. A derivative is a rate of change; the slope of a tangent line on a graph. This was always stuck in my head. So long as I never forgot about this, I knew I was going to be alright, and it turned out I would be alright =). I think all of us should do the same thing for this unit. It's SUUUUPER challenging, probably because it's complex and new. But if we keep in mind the reason why we do the steps we do when solving a problem, then we might turn out alright =).

The chain rule, right? Before, we always worked with "static" problems, where things weren't moving. The chain rules apply when the system isn't static. That's why we have the "dv/dt" or "dr/dt" or "dd/dt" or whatever it might be... the rates of change.

So... things like these, I think, are worthwhile keeping in mind. That's my Bob!

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