www.whyslopes.com
Appetizers and Lessons for Mathematics and Reason 
  calculus and preparation for calculus + math education reform, etc.

Online Volumes (Book Orders)
1,  Elements of Reason.
1A. Pattern Based Reason 
1B. Math Curriculum Notes
2. Three Skills for Algebra
3. Why Slopes & More Math

Mathematics Course Designers: LAMP offers food for thought.
More Site Areas 
1. Help Your Child or Teen Learn 
2. Solving Linear Equations
3. Fractions Ratios Rates Proportions & Units
4. Euclidean Geometry
5. Analytic Geometry/Functions 
6. Number Theory
7. More Calculus
More Site Areas 
8. Complex Numbers 
9. Qc Maths  Education  
10. Secondary IV(?) maths
11. Real  Analysis 
12. LaTeX2HotEqn:
13. Electric Circuits Etc  
14.  Français
15. Algebra, Odds & Ends, Etc
More Site Areas 
16. Math Education Essays
17. Telling & Working with Time
18. Maps, Plans & Drawings
19. Quantitative Skills for  home, shopping and work 
20. Statistics Useful, or Not.
Try the
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to work online with others.

||Définition d'une variable || Algèbre || Arithmetique || Logique ||La raison basée sur les règles et modelés||
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use or become a tutor  at your own risk 


YOU are better than YOU think. Show yourself  how:  

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Read  logic chapters 1 to 5  in online volume Three Skills for Algebra  for greater skills & confidence in  work 
and study.

Learn to read notes and textbooks like a lawyer, so that no nuance, no subtlety and no clause escapes your attention.

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 Logic chapters 1 to 5  re- appear not in sequence, as is or longer,  in  Volume 1A,  Pattern Based Reason, Bon Appetite.

Logic Mastery
 Amazing, Amusing, Amorous,  Delicious, Delightful, Edifying, Strengthening Elixir. 
It eases work & learning difficulties Makes the hard easier. Opens eyes. Leads to greater precision.
in reading and
writing

Logic mastery makes the hard, easier. Logic mastery  leads to better, stronger and richer comprehension.  Logic mastery  improves reading and writing.  Logic mastery ease learning difficulties.  Logic mastery gives a headstart.  In sum, logic mastery  will develops critical thinking, improve reading and writing, and give a firmer base for work and studies at many levels. Good luck.


After logic  (a) continue reading Three Skills for Algebra, chapters 8 to 14  and do so alongside site area on solving liinear Equations ; or (b) see this calculus starter lesson and Volume 3, Why Slopes  & More Math, chapters 2 to 6;

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Caution: Site advice is approximately correct, for some circumstances, not all. That leaves room for thought

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What may be learnt and when depends on how skills and concepts are developed. Making the hard easier and clearer will allow earlier & richer development of skills and concepts.


Try the Twiddla Whiteboard. In principle, it  allows to people to draw and chat together online on a copy of this webpage or a clean sheet. The chat may be via text or audio.  Visit www.twiddla.com to set up whiteboards to work with the webpage of your choice.

For online automated help in senior high school maths & calculus, visit  quickmath.com  For Automatic Calculus and Algebra Help with derivatives, integrals, graphs, linear equations, matrix algebra, visit calc101.com  With  overlap, each site quickmath & calc101offers a different range of services, some free, some not, all based on webmathematica. Good luck.

A Cross-Country Skier and Her Trail

[Play Video]  2¼ minutes:  Slope Interpretation for a 2D ski hill y = f(x).  (Appeared earlier in  Why Slopes Appetizer)
Meet the cross-country skier, Barbara:

She has only one ski.  Alternatively, you can imagine she always travels with both skis parallel. Travel with one ski was the way in which both alpine and cross-country skiing began. Also meet the Jack Rabbit ski trail y = h(x) (see below) which she skis, always in the direction ® from left to right.5 That is, she travels in the direction of increasing x.

5 Footnote: The slope to a curve at point can be approximated by taking the slope of a short line segment which has one end at the point and another end also on the curve. This approximation should get better as the line segment gets shorter. The finite limiting value of this approximation, should it exist, is taken to be the slope. Before discussing this approximation any further, we will make the improper assumption that the slope of a short ski placed on the graph of y = f(x), or the graph of one quantity versus another, is the slope to the graph. This will allow some exploration of why slopes are studied.

Imagine or suppose that the hill is smooth enough, so that, at most points, a ski can lie flat against the hill surface. The slope beneath a foot or ski gives what should be the slope of a tangent line to the hill. The slope of a ski can in principle be measured any time by freezing a skier in place, or equivalently taking a photograph (snapshot) and then measuring the slope from the photograph.6

6 footnote What happens if Barbara goes up and over a sharp peak? As she gets to the top and pivots from the uphill to downhill side, the slope of her ski goes from positive to negative.

 

The vertical line segment in the above graph represents a jump or cliff. The above diagram strictly speaking consists of the graph of a function y = h(x) plus a vertical portion to represent a ski jump.
  • Above the point x = a on the horizontal axis, the height above the x axis of her ski midpoint is y = h(a). We will call h(x), the height function.
  • The height function h(x) might be measured or computed from a formula, a map, or a graph, such as the one shown above. Or, in speaking of a height function h(x), we could leave its values unmeasured, not computed or unknown.
Barbara rides her ski both up and downhill. To go uphill, she may use her ski poles with great strength or skill. As she moves, the slope m of her one ski changes. It provides information about the hill.
The slope m is For Motion
> 0 (or positive) Uphill
< 0 (or negative) Downhill
= 0 (or zero) Horizontal

The shorthand for the word positive is +ve. The shorthand for negative is similarly -ve.

A Skier in Motion

Immediately below are a few snapshots of Barbara on another portion of the skill trails and hills y = h(x). In each snapshot, the slope of the ski is assumed to be equal to the slope of the hill at the ski midpoint.

 In the diagram observe:

  • At x = c, the slope m > 0 and she is moving uphill: her height is increasing.
  • At x = b, the slope m < 0 and she is moving downhill: her height is decreasing.
  • At x = a, the skier is approaching the top of the hill. What is the sign of the ski slope before, at and after the top of this smooth hill?
Later, we will look at those points or intervals where the slope is increasing (becoming more positive or less negative), where the slope is decreasing (become less positive or more negative), and where the slope is greatest, least or zero. Ski trails in which the slope varies are of greater interest and possibly less boring than trails where the slope is constant. Again, the study and analysis of curves y = f(x) with varying slopes is one of the first subjects in a calculus course.

 

www.whyslopes.com
Volume 3,  Why Slopes and More Math
-  

Foreword, One Calculus  preview and Online Chapters: (V) signals video (RealPlayer Format)  to watch 

Area Entrance & Hub
Foreword
Chapter Descriptions
1. Introduction
2. Calculus Starter Lesson
2. Second Preview Begins
2 Skier in Motion (V)
2 The Skier (V)
2. Position Dependent (V)
3 Slope & Extrema (V)
4 Single Factor Analysis (V)
4 Two Factor (V)
4 More Factors (V)
4 With Divisors (V)
5 Maxima & Minima Tests
6 Jumps & Discontinuities
8 Review  (optional)
9 On Calculus Studies
11 Slope of Slope
13  Acceleration
14 Limits & Error Control (V)
14 Limit of a Fn.
14. Limited Error Control
14 Signif. Digits
14 Cauchy Limits
14 Sequence Limits
14 Decimal Arith.
15 What is Slope (V)
15 Slope Calculation (V)
15 Slope, a Limit
15 Tangent Lines
15 Linear Approx.,
15 Limits via Algebra (V)
15 Recap.
PS.Chain Rule for Polys
PS Chain Rule- General  (V) -
PS More Chain Rule (V)
PS - Sign Analysis (V)
16 What is Velocity
17  What is Area
18 Integration
18 Area Calculation
18  Fn DefN, 6 Ways
19 Logs & Powers
19 Natural Log.
19 Exponential Fn.
20 What's Next
21 Add Vectors
22 Complex #'s
23 Complex #'s
23 Trig Identity
23 Proofs of.
24 Complex Logs etc

Units in Calculations:
7 Velocity
7 Varying Velocity Example
7. Velocity Calculation
7 Changing Units
7 Same Velocity  Motions
10 Slopes without Units.
10 Units & Slopes
10  Units in Cost vs. Quantity
10  How Units  Appear
10 Unit  Elimination
10 Partial Elimination
10 Interest & Units
12 More on Units
Content Guide

Enriched material: The Appendices of Volume 3 are located in the Real  Analysis  Area.

Pigeon Hole Principle
Constant Difference Thm
Continuous Functions
Rational Functions
Mean Value Theorem
One Side Range Theorem
Range On One Side Theorem
Integration & Lipschitz
 Continuity


These appendices continue the
decimal viewpoint of limits, error
control and continuity begun
in Chapter 14. The One Sided
 Range Theorem
is a postscript,
not in printed version.



Online Volume 2, Three Skills for Algebra, Chapters 1 to 25 - skip 18., verbalizes and explains key skills and concepts, those needed in calculus, again to make the hard easier. A visual understanding of complex numbers may help - serve as back ground info,  in partial fraction decomposition.

 

 


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