Mr. Hermann’s Update

Hello, all. Life is good in math class!

Calculus II just rediscovered u-substitution as a tool for finding antiderivatives, and today proved why integration by parts works!

Calculus I is neck deep in derivatives. They’ve recently discovered the power rule, and are in the process of figuring out which compositions of functions are simple to apply derivative techniques to. There was much rejoicing when it was discovered that the derivative of a sum is the sum of the derivatives. There was much dismay when it was discovered that the same does not hold true with products.

Precalculus is wrestling with reciprocal trig functions, trig story problems, and the law of sines. The law of cosines looms ominously on the horizon.

Math for Mathematicians has recently spent a lot of time talking about the areas of various sections of a circle that is sliced into twelve sectors (pizza slices). A student recently contributed an excellent geometry problem to the class that she discovered on one of those social media sites that people way younger than me use. Snapchat? Instagram? Not sure, but whatever it is, I like it more now that I know it can be a source of awesome math puzzles.

Have a good one!

Mr. Hermann