Education Technology

NSW: First Principles

by Texas Instruments

Objectives

Students use function notation to express the gradient from first principles for a range of functions to explore the gradient at a point, followed by the general gradient of the function by generating a table of values. 

Vocabulary

  • First Principles
  • Gradient
  • Limit
  • Function

About the Lesson

Students define their function f(x) using the function editor on the calculator. The derivative from first principles is then expressed, using a vinculum in appropriate function notation and the distance (d) between the two points is reduced so students can explore the limit. With a small value of (d), students can then store the expression as g(x) and generate a table of values to see the derivative at multiple points with a view to determining the equation for the derivative.

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