2. The Slope of a Curve

3. Since “slope” is the measure of a straight line’s steepness, it does seem, initially, quite odd to connect slopes and curves… However, there were problems in mathematics involving curves that needed solutions….they were stuck

4. Then, there was a breakthrough…

5. SirSir Isaac Newton ( 25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/) was an English physicist and mathematician who is widely recognized as one of the most influential scientists of all time His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica ("Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy"), first published in 1687, laid the foundations for classical mechanics Newton made seminal contributions to optics, and he shares credit with Gottfried Leibniz for the development of calculus.

6. Rocket Dragster

7. Imagine a dragster

8. A dragster can cover ¼ mile track (402 m ) in about 4.5 seconds! That is CDCI WEST to Subway!

9. Think back to distance vs time graphs Suppose a dragster can cover 402m in 4.5 seconds What is the dragsters speed after 3 seconds?....... D(m) t(s) 012345012345 402 0 402 4.5

10. Notice: The slope of the line represents the speed of the object!

11. This is a calculation of the average speed of the dragster. However!.. We know in reality, the car’s speed is not constant. The car actually accelerates from zero, to its top speed at the end of the course. A true distance time graph of this will be curved…

12. D(m) T(s) 012345012345 402 0 (0,0) (4.5, 402) We realize that this measurement is fairly useless…. BUT… We kind of like it because it is really easy to calculate… So we are going to adjust it..

13. What we really want to know, is the speed of the dragster exactly 3 seconds after it started… This is called the instantaneous speed this is big

14. An average speed can be calculated by using 2 points. D(m) T(s) 012345012345 402 0 (4.5,402) (3, 50) secant What if we moved that second point closer?...

15. (3,50) (4.5,402)

17. Newton and Leibniz realized that if you zoomed in close enough (infinitely close), then a curved line is actually straight..

18. We are now going to complete an investigation from 1.1 Pg 5 in the text.

19. Pg 9 1c 3 4a 5 8 9 13 14