This week in AP Calc we continued studying related rates and we took a related rates quiz, which was my worst quiz I've ever taken ever. My problem is just that I struggle a lot thinking in rates. Like I can work fairly easily with solid, not changing numbers. But the minute I have to find a derivative and conceptualize a problem where things are constantly changing I get a, for lack of a better term, brain cramp. I just over think it. I'm also not great at meticulously thinking things through, so when working with Related Rates, which take a lot of steps, I tend to miss something and bog the whole thing up. In fact, I only began to understand what Related Rates were when I worked with Lindsey DeFrain. Sadly, that was the day before the quiz… so it didn't really sink in in time.
On the Quiz I was ok with the pebble problem. Circles I can handle pretty well. But the two planes one was a complete mess. I kept confusing speed with position and I couldn't write a valid formula to save my life. Likewise, on the cone problem I couldn't even begin to solve it. Granted, I couldn't remember any cone equations- but I really just had no clue. Honestly, the only thing I truly liked this week was evaluating dy when we are given x and dx. Oh well, I plan to study related rates more, and hopefully with some more practice I can do better!
On the Quiz I was ok with the pebble problem. Circles I can handle pretty well. But the two planes one was a complete mess. I kept confusing speed with position and I couldn't write a valid formula to save my life. Likewise, on the cone problem I couldn't even begin to solve it. Granted, I couldn't remember any cone equations- but I really just had no clue. Honestly, the only thing I truly liked this week was evaluating dy when we are given x and dx. Oh well, I plan to study related rates more, and hopefully with some more practice I can do better!