Welcome to the HappyCal Zone

(Honors AP Calculus BC, Period A)
Web address shortcut for this page: www.modd.net/910hcal

Are you nervous when you see NCWEE? concerned when you see CIRC? perturbed when you see PBC? Visit Mr. Hansen’s fabled abbreviations page to make sense of those cryptic markings you see on your papers.

 

Schedule at a Glance (see archives for older entries)
Written assignments should follow the HW guidelines.

 

Th 5/27/010

Tonight, please take the anonymous feedback survey. No information other than the questions posed is being collected (not even IP addresses!).

 

F 5/28/010

Last day of class; end of fourth quarter. All work to be graded, including extra credit, if any, must be submitted by 3:30 p.m. today.

HW due: Please take the anonymous feedback survey. No information other than the questions posed is being collected (not even IP addresses!).

 

Essential Links:
--
STA School Handbook
-- College Board: AP Calculus BC Course Description
-- Eric Weisstein’s World of Mathematics, the Web’s most extensive mathematics resource (no kidding!)
-- WolframAlpha, a site that I possibly shouldn’t tell you about . . .

Extra Help:
-- Karl’s Calculus Tutor for first-year students
-- Calc101.com, another site I might not want to tell you about (click it and you’ll see why)
-- Temple University: Calculus on the Web (COW)

Links Based on Class Discussions:
-- Troy’s Integral Approximation Thingy: a neat JavaScript application for Midpoint Rule, Trapezoid Rule, Simpson’s Rule, etc.
-- The “RiemannSums Applet” found by John S. (actually shows you the rectangles or trapezoids)
-- Chris and Andrew’s proof that Simpson’s Rule is a weighted average of the Midpoint and Trapezoid Rules
-- Braxton’s direct proof of FTC2
-- Proof that FTC1 implies FTC2 and conversely
-- Related rates tutorial and practice problems
-- Partial fraction decomposition with sample problems and solutions, courtesy of the University of California at Davis

Links for AP Preparation:
-- Real sample AP questions from the College Board
-- AB Calculus Cram Sheet
-- BC Calculus Cram Sheet (courtesy of Will Felder and Mr. Hansen)
-- “Stuff you MUST know cold” (link to another AP calculus teacher’s site; requires Adobe Acrobat reader)
-- Review question logsheet (requires Microsoft Excel); also available are updated 2-page versions for 2008-09 and 2009-10
-- Permitted features for graphing calculators on the AP examination
-- Actual college calculus tests from Mr. Hansen’s alma mater (great practice!)
-- Multiple choice practice #1 with answer key
-- Multiple choice practice #2 with answer key
-- First semester recap (recycled from my 2006-07 IntroCal class, for which this handout served as a full-year recap)

Fun Links:
-- Homemade “Segway”-like balancing scooter uses a fair amount of calculus!
-- Mathematicians as depicted in the movies (Good Will Hunting, etc.)
-- An Algebra II problem that has a calculus flavor to it. (This is problem #26 from §11-7 of Foerster’s Algebra and Trigonometry: Functions and Applications.) The problem is to determine which sweepstakes prize is better: a $20,000 lump sum or $100 a month for life. Assume 4% annual interest compounded monthly. In part (d), the challenge is to determine how the answer changes if the interest rate changes to 7%.
-- The Mt. Sinai problem and two variations
-- The astonishing Bailey-Borwein-Plouffe algorithm for calculating pi to any desired decimal place
-- Sound wave analysis (harmonics, Doppler shift, etc.) / excellent site developed by students at TJHSST in Virginia
-- Good problems (some calculus, some not)
-- More fun links on Mr. Hansen’s home page

Serious Links:
-- Summer math camps for talented high school students
-- Click here for other serious links


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Last updated: 27 May 2010