A few days ago, a reader asked if you could find the location of horizontal asymptotes from the derivative of a function. The answer, alas, is no. You can determine that a function has a horizontal asymptote from its derivative, but not where it is. This is because a function and its many possible vertical…
What does an asymptote of the derivative tell you about the function? How do asymptotes of a function appear in the graph of the derivative? One of my most read posts is Reading the Derivative’s Graph, first published seven years ago. The long title is “Here’s the graph of the derivative; tell me about the…
This is an exploration based on the AP Calculus question 2018 AB 6. I originally posed it for teachers last summer. This will make, I hope, a good review of many of the concepts and techniques students have learned during the year. The exploration, which will take an hour or more, includes these topics: Finding…
In an ideal world, I would like to have all students study limits in their pre-calculus course and know all about them when they get to calculus. Certainly, this would be better than teaching how to calculate derivatives in pre-calculus (after all derivatives are calculus, not pre-calculus). Limits are the foundation of the calculus. Continuity,…
Every Spring I have a lot of fun proofreading Audrey Weeks’ new Calculus in Motion illustrations for the most recent AP Calculus Exam questions. These illustrations run on Geometers’ Sketchpad. In addition to the exam questions Calculus in Motion (and its companion Algebra in Motion) include separate animations illustrating most of the concepts in calculus…
The fifth in the Graphing Calculator / Technology series (The MPAC discussion will continue next week) Seeing discontinuities on a graphing calculator is possible; but you need to know how a calculator graphs to do it. Here’s the story: The number you choose for XMIN becomes the x-coordinate of the (center of) the pixels in the…
Limits logically come before continuity since the definition of continuity requires using limits. But practically and historically, continuity comes first. The concept of a limit is used to explain the various kinds of discontinuities and asymptotes. Start by studying discontinuities. Types of discontinuities to consider: removable (a gap or hole in the graph), jump, infinite…
Teaching Calculus 