This week we learned about how to graph derivatives without a calculator, how to know when derivatives will fail, and the different rules of derivatives that allow us to write/find the derivative without using the four step process. I really struggled with the concept of tangent and normal lines. For some reason I had a hard time figuring out how to write the equation for them. After blindly doing a homework question about tangent lines I thought I came to a an answer but all I really found was the slope. After talking with some other people they explained to me how to do this kind of problem and I thought I got it but when I tried to do it later on my own I was lost again. I had just memorized the steps instead of actually understanding the "why" behind each step. So I took a closer look and realized that once you find the slope you want to find the y-value at the given x-value and then plug all those numbers into the y=mx+b formula to find the y-intercept and then rewrite the equation. You want to find the slope at the tangent so that's why you plug it into the derivative first. But next you want to find the values at the actual equation not the derivative.
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March 2017
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