Tag Archives: Average rate of change

Applications of Integration – Area & Average Value

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Usually the first application of integration is to find the area bounded by a function and the x-axis, followed by finding the area between two functions. We begin with these problems

First some calculator hints

Graphing Integrals using a graphing calculator to graph functions defined by integrals

Graphing Calculator Use  and Definition Integrals – Exam considerations Suggestions for using a calculator efficiently in area/volume problems

Area Problems

Area Between Curves

Under is a Long Way Down How to avoid “negative area.”

Density Functions Not often asked on the AP exams, but a good application related to area, nevertheless.

Who’d a thunk it? Some more complicated area problems for CAS solution.

Improper Integrals and Proper Areas – a BC topic

Average Value

Average Value of a Function

What’s a Mean Old Average Anyway – Discusses the different “average” in calculus

Half-full and Half Empty – Average Value

Average Value Activity to help students discover the Average Value formula

 

 

 

 

Revised and updated October 22, 2018

 

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What’s a Mean Old Average Anyway?

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Students often confuse the several concepts that have the word “average” or “mean” in their title. This may be partly because not just the names, but the formulas associated with each are very similar, but I think the main reason may be that they are keying in on the word “average” rather than the full name.

Here are the three items. We will assume that the function f is continuous on the closed interval [a, b] and differentiable on the open interval (a, b):

1.  The average rate of change of a function over the interval is simply the slope of the line from one endpoint of the graph to the other.

 \displaystyle \frac{f\left( b \right)-f\left( a \right)}{b-a}

2. The mean (or average) value theorem say that somewhere in the open interval (a, b) there is a number c such that the derivative (slope) at x = c is equal to the average rate of change over the interval.

\displaystyle {f}'\left( c \right)=\frac{f\left( b \right)-f\left( a \right)}{b-a}

3. The average value of a function is literally the average of all the y-coordinates on the interval. It is the vertical side of a rectangle whose base extends on the x-axis from x = a to x =b and whose area is the same as the area between the graph and the x-axis and the function over the same interval.

\displaystyle \frac{\int_{a}^{b}{f\left( x \right)dx}}{b-a}

Notice that when you evaluate the integral, the result looks very much like the ones above. This formula is also called the mean value theorem for integrals or the integral form of the mean value theorem. No wonder people get confused.

The three are closely related. Consider a position-velocity-acceleration situation. The average rate of change of position (#1 above) is the average value of the velocity (#3) and somewhere the velocity must equal this number (#2). Similarly, the average rate of change of velocity (#1) is the average acceleration (#3) and somewhere in the interval the acceleration (derivative of velocity) must equal this number (#2).

These ideas are tested on the AP calculus exams sometimes in the same question. See for example 2004 AB 1 parts c and d.

So, help your students concentrate on the entire name of the concepts, not just the “average” part.