Re: TI-M: TIM:Stupid question(?)


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Re: TI-M: TIM:Stupid question(?)




At 09:10 PM 10/26/2000 -0400, you wrote:

>Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there are any easier 
>ways to
>calculate the slope of a function at any given point than a 
>derivative.  They're
>not THAT slow, even using an 86 to calculate the numerical approximation.

There is none. The derivative is your sole god. ;)
Plus, you can get a graph for the line by using the point-slope formula:
y-y1 = m(x-x1)
but m = dy/dx in this case, so y-y1 = (dy/dx)(x-x1).
Neat, huh? :-)

So let's say you have y = sin(x) as your function. The derivative is 
cos(x), and we can just plug in x = 0 to find that y = 0. So we have a 
point and a function for the slope, so y-0=cos(x)(x-0) --> y=x*cos(x) for a 
graph of the tangent line.

[insert phear here]
--
//nickd.
   <http://nickd.org>: running down the way up
   aolim:<BlueCalx84>  email:<nickd@nickd.org>




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