| Precalculus |
Oooh! This is baby math, so no crying. |
WELCOME TO PRE-CALCULUS!
Mrs. Cantey is teaching PreCalculus AA this year. PreCalculus AA is for students who like and/or are gifted in mathematics. It is not a course for the faint of heart, yet it is still a level easier than Calculus itself. Precalculus AA students are presumed to enjoy doing their homework every night and love the challenge of unusual or difficult problems.
This page contains several handouts that Precalculus AA students will need to refer to during the year.
Regular Pre-Calculus classes are also welcome to download and use the information on this page.
Precalculus is supposed to grow you up and bridge the gap between algebra and calculus. Hopefully all of you will take calculus next year: BC for the best geniuses, AB for regular geniuses and AA for lesser geniuses.
Degrees in science and business particularly require calculus. So, take your Precalculus seriously and learn as much as you can!
By the way, everyone should take statistics, even if your major does not require it. There are a lot of bad statistics floating around! It takes an education in the subject to differentiate between the good information and the bad. Such knowledge is critical if you are to make wise choices in all areas of life.
We are getting a new book for the 2008-2009 school year, but it may not get here on day one. I l-o-v-e this new book! I'm happy that the course will now provide a much stronger foundation for the study of Calculus.
The very tentative First Quarter Syllabus based on the new book is posted below.
August 2008 |
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UNIT CIRCLE - the basis for trig
You will need the Unit Circle all year long. This file contains graphics, so be patient, it may take a few minutes to download. ventually it needs to be thoroughly memorized and downloaded into a permanent file in your brain.
click here for the unit circle |
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Identities and formulas
Click below for a copy of the identities you will need during the school year. These too, well at least many of them, will need to be permanently downloaded into each AA brain.
click here for the identities sheet |
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The major conics - parabolas, ellipses and hyperbolas
In the middle of the second semester PreCalculus students will study conic sections. These are the shapes you get when you slice through a cone. (Hence the name "conic") Click below for a nice summary of conic shapes and equations. This information was prepared by one of my former UC students. The file has graphics in it and may take a few minutes to load, so be patient!
click here for conics information sheet |
Oooo...I used to be soooo young...and thin! |
PASCAL'S TRIANGLE
You will find this tool very helpful when we study combinations and compute probabilities near the end of the year. These numbers can also be used to quickly multiply out powers of binomials like (x+1)^6 etc.
click here for Pascal's Triangle |
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GRAPHING CALCULATORS
You will need a graphing calculator from now on.
I recommend the TI-83 or TI-84 as the friendliest and cheapest model. I may not be able to help you figure out how to use the other models, but someone in the class probably can. Also, if you buy a different brand (Casio for example) the likelyhood of difficulty in operating your calculator and/or not getting any assistance increases. The TI-83, TI-83 plus and TI-84 have all the built in functions you will need when you take statistics and they are quite sufficient for use in all Walnut's calculus courses.
If you do get a TI-89 etc. or some brand other than Texas Instruments, be sure to carry your manual with you to school. That way maybe we can solve problems with its operation at lunch or after school, that is if no one in the class can figure it out.
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RULES etc.
Here is the information I give to students on DAY ONE.
click here for first day hand out |
practice makes better |
BLANK UNIT CIRCLE
OK Rachel Henshaw asked for this! Use it to practice on.
click here for a blank unit circle |
yipee! My very own polar paper! |
POLAR GRAPH PAPER
By popular demand! Download and use this sheet for all your polar graphing needs.
click here for polar paper.... |
Ach! Wish I could add correctly! |
MATRIX formulas and algorithms - CH 2 enrichment
Although it's quite tedious to actually compute determinants and inverse martices by hand for anything larger than a 2x2 matrix, I do want AA students to be aquainted with the method. Top students may want to try the challenge of doing the hand calculation necessary to find the inverse of a 4x4 matrix. If you want to go straight to the insane assylum, try a 5x5! :-) Even if you never get the right answer because of inevitable careless arithmetic errors, trying to do a 3x3 or 4x4 will help you to understand the hand calculation algorithms.
Early exposure to the methodss involved in inverting nonsinulag (invertible) matrices will serve you well if you ever take Linear Algebra or Matrix Methods in college. These courses do not limit themselves to numerical matrices which can be easily entered into a calculator.
click here for the MATRIX handouts |
