ATAR Notes: Forum

VCE Stuff => VCE Mathematics => VCE Mathematics/Science/Technology => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE Specialist Mathematics => Topic started by: Collin Li on December 01, 2007, 06:45:57 pm

Title: Common mistakes or misunderstandings
Post by: Collin Li on December 01, 2007, 06:45:57 pm
I think we should start to build up a bunch of common mistakes or misunderstandings that students tend to make. This will be useful for next years students.

To get the ball rolling:
- Implicit differentiation with f(x,y) = a, students often forget to differentiate the RHS constant.

There are also times when we re-encode the knowledge in our brain in a much more efficient way, demonstrating our understanding. If you can capture the thought process behind these moments, please contribute :)
Title: Re: Common mistakes or misunderstandings
Post by: Daniel15 on December 01, 2007, 07:30:35 pm
 - When you find a Volume of A Solid of Revolution, don't forget to multiply by pi and square the function.
And... Hmmm... That's all I remember for now :P
Title: Re: Common mistakes or misunderstandings
Post by: cara.mel on December 01, 2007, 07:36:57 pm
- When you find a Volume of A Solid of Revolution, don't forget to multiply by pi and square the function.
And... Hmmm... That's all I remember for now :P
Building onto that (you reminded me), check to see if the area you want is on the outside.

Oh and that, if you have a function that looks like a semicircle or other familiar shapes and you need to find the area, you don't need to show off your ability to integrate
Title: Re: Common mistakes or misunderstandings
Post by: rustic_metal on December 01, 2007, 07:37:40 pm
don't plus things wrong.
Title: Re: Common mistakes or misunderstandings
Post by: Collin Li on December 01, 2007, 07:42:43 pm
Oh and that, if you have a function that looks like a semicircle or other familiar shapes and you need to find the area, you don't need to show off your ability to integrate

Let's make that more rigorous. If you can show that the function is a circle (express it in standard cartesian or polar form). Shouldn't be making assumptions based on what things look like, haha.
Title: Re: Common mistakes or misunderstandings
Post by: midas_touch on December 02, 2007, 12:12:34 pm
When calculating the areas under graphs, forgetting to change the interval of integration if you are using the substitution method.