Apologies for the later than usual update, figured I'd take advantage of the lengthened due date. Thankfully I didn't forget about this, I was a little worried about that, but regardless, here I am typing. As a little preface of sorts, I'd like to mention that the new style for weebly is a little annoying, I liked it how it was, but I guess that doesn't really concern you, huh? Anyways, let's dive into this (or, rather, last) week's calculus.
So we had a test on Tuesday, and I think it went well. Or, at least, it seemed like it went well, I very easily could have bombed it, though I did feel fairly confident on the majority of my answers. I am still a bit unclear on one thing though. So, we learned that a graph is not discontinuous if the asymptote is at a point not in the domain, and I understand that. My question is, does that meant that an equation like, say, (x+1)/x has no points of discontinuity? I remember there being a question like that on the test, and I'm pretty sure I chose not to list the asymptote as a point of discontinuity, but I have absolutely no clue as to whether or not I was right to do so. Other than that, though, I think I did well. I could probably check online, but hey, if I do that I won't have any surprise on Tuesday, will I?
Wednesday and Friday were the beginnings of derivatives, and I have to say, I don't understand them. Like, at all. I suppose I'll come to grasp them over the next week though; after all, we only did one assignment on them. I also have to admit that I had little to no idea what I was doing throughout the assignment, but it was completely my fault. I opted to do my calculations (which, since I haven't mentioned, were to approximate slope at a point) in a completely stupid and inefficient way, and I wound up paying for it by getting most of the answers wrong. The worst thing is that I'd have had a much easier time had I read through the whole of the instructions, but I instead chose to find slope my own way. In case you'd like to know my incredibly stupid method, I essentially went about 1x10^-7 above and below the point in question. Then I determined the change between them and divided by two, and then I lost all sense and multiplied by a number around 10x10^6 or 10x10^7. I usually went with the latter, and wound up having my answer be 10 times the actual answer. Thankfully I've realized my error though, that'd be awful to be quizzed or tested on it and be off by nine times the amount. In the future, I'll make sure to fully read the instructions as opposed to lazily skimming them. Or, I'll try at least.
Anyways, that's pretty much it for the week. With how hectic Homecoming tends to be, we didn't do too much, and with the fog day on Thursday we lost even more time. And just to rant a little bit, I don't understand Homecoming and I think it's an incredibly pointless and generally inefficient waste of time. I mean, honestly, we could have done a lot more not only in Calculus, but also in every other class if we didn't waste so much time and effort into putting on a show of school spirit for a school that we don't necessarily even want to go to. Now, I'm not saying I dislike the high school at all, but the thing is, we're generally forced to go to whichever high school is most convenient, or whichever one our parents put us in. There's that bit, and then the part where people constantly whine about the school, how awful the teachers are, how they hate class, etc. I find it incredibly hypocritical and, to reiterate my main feelings, pointless. I think I'll end my rant there, so as not to dwarf the other content. I like adding this little bit here though; makes it feel more personal. Give me some feedback as to whether or not I should leave things like this at the end, if it detracts from the overall post I'll gladly stop. Anyways, next post'll be in five days, so expect it then.