Teaching the concept of limit in calculus

This entry was another spin-off from the session of mathematics education for post-16. The topic was teaching calculus. I chose to introduce differentiation from the concept of limit using Geogebra. The dynamic geometry software is meant to illustrate the existence of limit for the gradient of a function. The points A and B on the curve y=xⁿ in the Geogebra page can be made arbitrarily close but never coincide. As separation of AB in x tends to 0, the gradient of the curve tends to a limit. I would begin the introduction of limit with Zeno's paradoxes. When the students had comprehended the concept of limit, the derivative of y=xⁿ can be algebraically derived from the binomial expansion of (x+dx)ⁿ. The zoom and unzoom actions of the page were achieved using the javascript extension of Geogebra.

: 06 Feb 2011 11:26 |  Tags: Calculus Geogebra Teaching |  Comments (1) |  Report a problem