| ▲ | vkou 2 hours ago | |
There is no graphing problem that you'll be asked to solve before university that can't be plotted to a 'good enough for high school' level by hand in seconds. Four data points is sufficient to give you a 'good enough' shape and position of a second-degree polynomial. Five or six for a third-degree one. (And you barely see them, and don't learn how to algebraically solve for their roots in high school anyways, because the cubic factoring formula is a pig.) If you can't tell what a function's plotted shape is going to be at a glance, you haven't learned the material to the degree expected of an attentive child. | ||
| ▲ | vscode-rest an hour ago | parent | next [-] | |
Life is not all about solving problems, high school life even less so. Personally, I found great enjoyment in coming up with more and more involved plots in the Polar and Parametric modes, where yes I would predict what a graph would look like and then go over to see it. And then go back and iterate. Etc. Until I was painting pictures with functions and had a far greater understanding of the domain than I’d wager anyone who thinks graphing calculations are for finding roots of polynomials could imagine. | ||
| ▲ | NewsaHackO 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | |
This is nonsense. Kids are not expected to look at polynomial equations and be able to deduce the shape of the graph without a graphing calculator. Besides, it is expected that a student can use a graphing calculator to be able to numerically solve for a root of arbitrary polynomial equation. | ||