This week was kind of a weird week. On Thursday we had no school because of dog and on Friday we had a shortened hour because of homecoming. I'm having a hard time remembering but I think on Monday we went over our quizzes and did some kind of review activity. Then on Tuesday we had the TED talk Tuesday and I think we took the test that day. I got a 27.5 out of 30 on the test and that's not a bad score so I think that I understood ya material pretty well. Then on Wednesday we started a lab on derivatives that we finished on Friday. We haven't yet defined a derivtive in class but Wikipedia says the derivative is a measure of how a function changes as its input changes. I'm not really sure what that means but I know that in class we found two points on a graph that were really really really close to each other and found the slope that they made. Right now all of this derivative stuff is kind of confusing but we really haven't gone over it at all on class. I'm sure sooner next week we will get much more in depth with it. We didn't really learn much new material this week so this blog is pretty hard to write. We mainly just went over things from chapter two. I was happy with my test score but I still have a B+ in the class and I want to bump that up to an A if I can.

We learned about limits involving infinity, end behaviors, and continuity this week. These things matter because they can help us interpret graphs. We had previously learned about what a limit is and now we had to find limits as x approached positive and negative infinity. We also learned about finding graphs that can model the end behavior as it approaches infinity. This was pretty easy because you could usually just look inside the original function and find smaller functions that could model the end behavior. Every once in awhile I would get tripped up but for the most part this week was pretty easy for me. I liked how we worked in groups a lot and for the review we went around and did the stations. That was helpful because if I didn't understand something then my classmates could explain it to me. In continuity I realized that almost all normal functions are continuous. The only graphs that didn't have continuity were the greatest integer function and piece wise functions. The definition of continuity is a function that is continuous at every point in the domain. This means that asymptotes, which aren't in the domain, don't make graphs have discontinuity. The main thing that make graphs have discontinuity is holes or jumps. Holes are removable asymptotes and jumps are non removable. I participated this week when we all worked together on the white boards. I went over to another pod and got help with a question and I also helped other people with questions. I really like the white boards. It helps to learn things sometimes when you are able to teach them to other people. I still need to work on understanding some of the questions near the end of the homework. The questions that tell you what a graph looks like but don't show it to you are sometimes a 

This week we learned about limits. The definition of a limit is a point or value that a function can be made to approach progressively until it is as close to the point or value as desired. Basically it the number a function get really really close to at a certain x value. Limits will probably be used in the future with other assignments we will have to do and they will be like a base for our calculus. I understood almost everything this week pretty well. The substitution method for finding limits was really easy but it didn't always work. The hardest part about this week was polishing up my algebra skills. Some of the algebra was a little tough but once I got someone to help me out a little I got it all figured out. One thing we learned was the limit as x approaches 0 of sin(x)/x=1. This is called the sandwich theorem or the squeeze theorem. We watched a video in class about this and the guy talked about if person one eats more than person 2 and person 3 eats less than person 2 and person 1 and 3 eat the same about then person 2 will also eat the same amount. We also learned how to solve these limits on the calculator. Most limits have holes so if you're trying to find the limit of something as x approaches 2 then you would find the values of the graph at 1.99999 and 2.000001. This will usually work to help you find the limit. This week we all got together after a homework assignment and answered the questions we were struggling with on the white boards. I went over to group seven I think and got help with the two problems I struggled with and made sure that I understood them fully. I could still work on my algebra but I have this limit thing pretty much figured out.

Squeeze Theorem

http://www.khanacademy.org/math/calculus/limits_topic/squeeze_theorem/v/proof--lim--sin-x--x

This week we did some review on things that will be important later on in the class. We went over finding zeros, finding all real solutions, composition of functions, functions, inverse functions, position vs time and speed, slope, algebra manipulation, similar triangles, asymptotes, graphical reasoning, and measuring different things on solids. We will most likely need to use all of these things later on in class. I really understood most of the function stuff but when we got into the natural log and e things I struggled a bit. For the solids we often had to break them up into more simple solids and find the volume of each section and then add it all together. This week was really about shaking off the rust and getting back into the swing of things. We all worked together on the problems and when one person struggled we would try and help them out. I still need to work on remembering how to do some things but I will get there soon.