Topics
How could we find the slope of a parabola? Unlike a line, the steepness of a parabola varies, so we need to interpret the steepness of the curve at a point. For instance, look at x=2 on the graph of f(x)=x2 below.
What can we tell about the slope at that point? What if we utilize our knowledge of the slope of a straight line to estimate the slope at x=2 by connecting it to a nearby point on the graph of f.
Here, we have come up with an estimate for the slope, but how can we improve our estimate?
How could we find the slope of a parabola? Unlike a line, the steepness of a parabola varies, so we need to interpret the steepness of the curve at a point. For instance, look at x=2 on the graph of f(x)=x2 below.
What can we tell about the slope at that point? What if we utilize our knowledge of the slope of a straight line to estimate the slope at x=2 by connecting it to a nearby point on the graph of f.
Here, we have come up with an estimate for the slope, but how can we improve our estimate?