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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