quote]but nobody ever told me what calculus, sorry the calculus was for.
well since I got myself into this fine mess
well in short 1. differential calculus...when you have a linear function f(x) in the form y=mx+B, where m =the slope, y2-y1/x2 -x1 ...at any point on the line the slope 'm' remains constant...but as many items in nature are not linear but vary in a non-linear fashion such as Sinx or a logarithmic function, non linear acceleration...etc...
in that case on has to use the derivative which is a slope to a Tangent at any point on the curve that value is the instantaneous value that you would obtain and the slope 'm' becomes dy/dx in stead of delta as the change in 'x' becomes very very small
I think it might be too much to get into concavity, second derivatives, min and max points...etc.. as I don't have a blackboard and it will be mumbo jumbo
the process: certain key derivatives must be memorized [or derived
]
remembering that y=the function f(x)
they are:
d/dx (a )===a constant = 0 m = constant the slope value must be zero
d/dx X^n = (nx^n-1) i.e d/dx ( X^3 ) =3X^2 ='m'
d/dx (e^x) = e^x [itself]
d/dx lnx =1/x ...........[lnx]= natural log
d/dx 1/x =lnx
d/dx sinx =cosx
d/dx cosx =-sinx another way to symbolize derivative 'm' is f(x) with a prime = d (f(x)/dx or now that's ALL that should be memorized ---if interest continues I'll do the 'chain rule' the product rule, and the quotient rule and explain 'u'
questions?