(Late) Lab Reflection
The first exploration dealt with the tangent line. It illustrated instantaneous rate as the tangent line of that point, showing clearly that at one point or another, the instantaneous rate is the tangent line. Not only is this concept true, but it’s helpful to look at and adds to understanding.
The second lab had a simpler concept of distinguishing between instantaneous and average rate. They simply showed graphs which obviously had rate changes, and we calculated derivatives of certain points, keeping in mind that the average rate was just from one end to another, ignoring any curve or change.
October 23rd, 2006 at 9:06 pm
Careful of wording – Instantaneous rate is the slope of the tangent line.