A Stupid Question For Those Who Understand Calculus.

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

yea i feel you,,, i just got back from 3 tests in a row, physics (which is all electromagnetism stuff), multivariable calc, and statics. they werent really that hard but all at once was a little troublesome since the x,y,z axis in statics and multivariable are flipped.
just keep your head up because its good that ur questioning urself b/c u want to learn, but worrying about it will only hurt ur performance elsewhere.

I look at it this way: I am a 34 year old pizza delivery driver now. If I drop out of school again nothing will change. If I fail, nothing will change. However if I do well, everything might change for the better. Math may not come automatically to me, but I am not unable to learn it either. It is a progression of understanding that needs to be taken in small bites with lots of practice to learn each new concept ( aka Homework). If I do the work and spend the time learning it eventually I will get it. Even if I am failing a class I won't drop it because dropping it would be pointless. I paid for it already so I might as well get my money's worth and try to pass it next time. Eventually I will learn it.

 

[2000.malibu.ls]

ha ya i am in pre calc this year too, not so bad...yet. that block dude game on them calculators is sooo addicting!

lmao I kept stealing my freinds calculator to do that in algebra last year. I didnt learn much those days...

 

[Geesie]

I can't answer your question but:

Try this site for limits, and WAIT a few seconds for it to load and go through the steps, like a powerpoint slide show. Maybe it helps you, or maybe it doesn't but try it.
I thought it was a cool site and looks like it is good for the VISUAL learner.
http://www.calculus-help.com/funstuff/tutorials/limits/limit01.html

It does help, but most of it I already understood. I bookmarked it for future reference. My main difficulty was in how to determine if a problem I was dealing with had an actual limit, or an asymptote and an infinite limit. I know my math was right on the test I just took (most of it is just easy College Algebra), but I am unsure if my conclusions were correct. I am just afraid that I called infinite that which was not infinite, and mistook a limit for an asymptote or vice versa. Maybe it's the one hour of sleep I had the night before ( I have brutal insomnia and no insurance) or that I also had a Chemistry test right after. I guess I will ask the instructor Monday for some clarification.

If the equation goes to infinity at x, it has an infinite limit. If it goes to a real number, that number is the limit.

Example: The limit of y=2x at 4 is 8. As you put in values for x getting closer and closer to 4, the y gets closer and closer to 8. If you put in for example 3.99999, you get 7.99998.

The limit of y=1/x^2 at zero is infinite. As you put in values for x getting closer and closer to zero, the y increases to infinity. If you put in .01 for x, y=10000. If you put in .001 for x, y=1000000.

 

[Geesie]

In the infinite limit example I gave above, both the left and right limit are +∞.

If the equation were y=1/x, the limit at zero would be -∞ from the left and +∞ from the right, since for x=-.01, y would be -100 while x=.01, y=100.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Thanks, that clears it up a little bit.