my algebra ii teacher is having us do derivatives?

Question

im in honors algebra ii and we are currently doing rational functions. we just learned how to graph some easy ones, but on the syllabus and in class she says that we are doing derivatives. i thought that was calculus? if we are doing them, are they super hard? 

Answer 1

:-

Differentiation is a branch of Calculus.

Not super hard !

Good luck !

Answer 2

You are likely doing very simple derivatives (polynomial functions).  They can be understood with an understanding of algebraic concepts and very little new memorization outside of the steps required to perform the activity.

I won't get into the details of that, but you likely won't be getting into more complicated derivatives until later.

Answer 3

Decent math programs in the decent schools do have some crossover. They are nothing that you shouldn't be able to handle. In hindsight, you should be able to see some crossover like this from the elementary level on. Starting to give basics concepts that can be built on down the line.

Answer 4

You may be doing "slopes," which are in fact derivatives. The high-school algebra approach to finding slopes is not particularly hard and does not involve "calculus." If you get into something that looks like

lim h->0 {[f(x+h) - f(x)]/h},

that is indeed a "calculus" approach to derivatives; whether it's hard or not depends on how complicated the functions "f" might be.

Answer 5

Derivatives are technically Calculus, but they're generally the first part of Calculus that a student will learn.  As a result, in many schools they are introduced in whatever math course immediately precedes it.

In some places, they are introduced in Geometry, since the equations are essentially developed directly from those for the slope of a line.  It's just that the line is now a curve.

Source(s): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative