This week in AP Calc, we started using critical points and second derivatives. The learning curve seemed quite steep to me for some reason. I do not know why because looking back on it, it does not seem very tough. The second derivative's zeros are simply inflection points on the original fucntion. This week was a focus on making the relationship between the original function and the first two derivatives. With this knowledge we can now fairly accurately draw the graph of a function using its derivatives to find minimums, maximums, and inflection points.
Critical points are like the stepping stones that we use to find out more information about a graph. Apparently those show up frequently on the AP test, so I will have to remember how to find them and what they mean. The idea is that critical points allow you to find points on a function without actually using a calculator.
Critical points are like the stepping stones that we use to find out more information about a graph. Apparently those show up frequently on the AP test, so I will have to remember how to find them and what they mean. The idea is that critical points allow you to find points on a function without actually using a calculator.