Reflection on the class labs
I have just completed the labs on instantaneous rate of change and tangents. I didn’t really learn much from the instantaneous rate of change lab, but it the work on the lab made it clear that the derivative of a point found by the secant line is much more accurate if c is small. (Given that c is the differance between x and a nearby point). From the tangent line lab, I learned that the derivative is equal to the slope of the tangent line at any point x. On a sine curve, the derivative has the greatest value at the x-intercepts of 0, 2Pi, 4Pi, Ect. These labs, overall, were a great review of all the ways in which derivatives can be found.
