Quote :

"I'm just sayin'"

Oh yeah, I know that; I used to teach a class at State that used WebAssign. But I would at least work the problems myself to check for mistakes or badly written problems.

2/9/2010 7:57:28 PM

if I ever have to do real math again I'm fucked. (Really, if I ever am asked to do anything I learned / should have learned in college, I'm fucked).

2/9/2010 8:49:26 PM

The correct answer is 15.

I asked the teacher. He said I needed to plot a curve using the points, sketch a tangent line, and guess the slope.

2/9/2010 10:10:55 PM

Quote :

"I asked the teacher. He said I needed to plot a curve using the points, sketch a tangent line, and guess the slope."

And I still say that's bullshit. Finitely many points do not determine a curve. There are infinitely many different curves you can sketch that connect those dots, and out of those you will obtain infinitely many different possibilities for the slope of the tangent line. Based on the information given, there can be no objectively "correct" one.

2/9/2010 10:18:34 PM

I am amongst the minority that thought that MA 241 was easier than 141/242 ?(calc III). Had Mccolumb?? for 241, she was great.

2/9/2010 10:19:24 PM

Quote :

"The correct answer is 15. I asked the teacher. He said I needed to plot a curve using the points, sketch a tangent line, and guess the slope. "

wow

This is the most retarded thing i’ve ever heard.

I’d almost say at this point your confusion on this class is due to your teacher.

The CORRECT answer to the question as stated should be the answer NRR gave after plotting and finding a regression.

Quote :

"i fit a quadratic equation to the data and it had a slope of about 18.3 at 1996 "

[Edited on February 9, 2010 at 10:27 PM. Reason : ]

2/9/2010 10:26:19 PM

241 was a lot harder for me than 141 and 242. 141 was a joke, as was 242. I love calculus and differential equations. I do a significant amount of this stuff almost every day. Fourier and Laplace are up there too

2/9/2010 10:28:11 PM

Oh well, 100% Webassign average is still being maintained.

Thanks for the help, gang.

2/10/2010 9:16:19 AM

100% Webassign average still maintained.

100% average on Maple assignments.

Test grades so far: 94, 84

Quiz grades so far: 9/10 and 9/10

3/8/2010 10:35:28 AM

3/8/2010 10:59:42 AM

3/8/2010 11:01:12 AM

looks like you are not screwed! Congrats!

3/8/2010 11:08:31 AM

Congrats on passing a 100-level class?

3/8/2010 11:21:38 AM

[Edited on March 8, 2010 at 11:45 AM. Reason : I still have two more tests and a final to bomb. FAILURE is POSSIBLE.]

3/8/2010 11:45:14 AM

Can someone help me with some basic Maple?

3/11/2010 11:29:27 PM

why didn't you just get the maples from someone who already took the class?

[Edited on March 12, 2010 at 12:11 AM. Reason : those things get passed around like a drunk sorority girl]

3/12/2010 12:11:18 AM

^too logical

3/12/2010 12:11:53 AM

^^ This is true. I know of 1 person who did maple themselves, and I know a lot of people who took 141/241 and 242.

3/12/2010 12:24:03 AM

I'd rather learn how to do it.

3/12/2010 2:49:36 PM

I bombed the third test. Still waiting for the official grade, but at most it will be a mid-range C.

3/31/2010 8:33:27 AM

Test grades (100 point scale): 94, 84, 89

Quiz grades (10 point scale): 9.5, 9, 10, 10, 10

Webassign grades: ~630 / 650 total points ~96%

Maple average: 90.16%

HW/Quizzes/Maple (93.33% avg) is 20% of my grade
Tests (89% avg) is 56% of my grade.

The final is 24%.

One more test today, and then the final on May 6th.

Not sure if I can came out of this with an A or not .


[Edited on April 22, 2010 at 2:37 PM. Reason : ]

4/22/2010 2:22:48 PM

I don't understand this. Why are you taking such a low level math class?

4/22/2010 2:23:28 PM

It's a requirement for a B.S. in Physics.

4/22/2010 2:23:51 PM

0 cares

4/22/2010 2:24:28 PM

Thanks for your insightful post.

Get fucked.

4/22/2010 2:27:32 PM

man, I had no idea a bs in physics involved such little calculus.

4/22/2010 2:29:28 PM

It's just a prerequisite to transfer.

4/22/2010 2:30:59 PM

I completely misinterpreted some info...pay me no attention.

4/22/2010 2:34:29 PM

your test grades changed

4/22/2010 2:35:22 PM

Oh, I guessed the curve on the second test wrong. 84 is much better, haha.

4/22/2010 2:36:53 PM

Quote :

"I am amongst the minority that thought that MA 241 was easier than 141/242 ?(calc III). Had Mccolumb?? for 241, she was great."

I did better in AP Calc BC (241) than I did in AP Calc AB (141), but I remember more of what I learned in AB than BC. I love math.

4/22/2010 2:40:10 PM

the physics curriculum looks awesome...i want a bs in physics

4/22/2010 2:41:17 PM

Last test owned.

I couldn't get the last question correct, but I did get the bonus:

"Integrate (x^2)/(x^2+1)"

4/23/2010 9:43:39 AM

what was the last question?

and how did you do the bonus, because there are a few ways to do it i believe.

4/23/2010 9:48:45 AM

I think the last question was:

Evaluate the integral of (arctan(x))/(x^2+1)

I used integration by parts, but I kept getting a loop over and over and couldn't figure it out. I think I'll get partial credit.

And on that bonus, I separated it into:

Integral of (x^2 + 1)/(x^2 + 1) - (1) / (x^2 + 1)

which then evaluates into:

x - arcsin(x) + c

4/23/2010 9:51:06 AM

actually it's arctan

4/23/2010 9:57:06 AM

My teacher said he would give +5 points on the final if 80% of the students did their evaluations.

The problem is that a fifth of the class has effectively dropped by not showing up anymore. This could be difficult.

4/28/2010 9:02:00 AM

Final exam on May 6th.

Topics include:

-Graphic functions
-Inverse functions
-Evaluating limits
-Limits at infinity
-Definition of a derivative, slope of a tangent line
-Derivative rules (chain,power,etc)
-Implicit diff./logarithmic diff.
-Related Rates
-Finding max/min/inflection
-Optimization
-L'Hospitals Rule
-Antiderivatives
-Riemann sums
-U-Substitutions,
-Integration by parts
-Partial fractions
-Trig substitution

5/4/2010 11:26:24 AM

You forgot to add

- Elastration

5/4/2010 11:27:38 AM

87 minutes until the final

5/6/2010 4:33:34 PM

Dude, high school kids do this shit in their sleep. You'll be fine.

5/6/2010 4:34:34 PM

well I hope the other Calculus classes you'll have to take for your major will be easier than this one for you

Cal III and Diff EQ weren't bad, really

5/6/2010 4:57:24 PM

Wait till you get to Lapalce transforms

5/6/2010 6:23:17 PM

why wait?

do them now, they're easy and fun

5/6/2010 6:24:25 PM

What's a Lapalce transform?

5/6/2010 7:05:48 PM

A-

5/11/2010 1:15:21 PM

reading only the first post and the most recent post, i would think you should be pleased w/ your A-.

5/11/2010 1:18:11 PM

^.

6/30/2010 12:25:10 PM

calc III is easy and pretty fun, calc II sucked (i hate series)

6/30/2010 1:30:47 PM

from a post a few months ago:

Quote :

"FOIL is for those who don't/can't develop a deeper/logical understanding of basic algebra. It is all a matter of logic and seeing patterns. Memorizing formulas and mnemonics are for those who just want to pass. Unfortunately, a big chunk of the educators' community furthers such techniques."

I totally agree.

When I learned FOIL (6th grade?), I learned it as THE WAY TO DO IT. "When you multiply two binomials, you do first, inner, outer, last. Tada!" And when I got to my first question regarding a binomial multiplied by a trinomial, I had no fucking idea what was going on. If the teacher had spent more time discussing why FOIL is the way it is (every term multiplied by every other term) and taught us the concept instead of the trick, then I would have been much more prepared for more complex problems.

Same thing as "cross-multiplication." Whenever the topic of x/A=B/C came up (I guess in the same ~6th grade class), the rule was to "cross multiply and divide." Why not just multiply by A? BECAUSE YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO FUCKING CROSS-MULTIPLY. Thinking back on it now, I don't even see the utility of cross-multiplication at all. If you're solving for x, just solve for x in as efficient a way as possible. If you can solve for x in one step, why make it difficult for yourself and do two steps?

6/30/2010 2:36:08 PM