In this introduction to derivatives and tangent lines, the concept of a tangent line to a point on a curve is explored, as well as the slopes of those tangent lines and the derivative. The video uses the slope of the second line to approximate the slope of the tangent lines and introduces the concept of limits. The goal is to understand what it means for a line to be tangent to a curve at a certain point and how to find the slope of the tangent line. The video uses the graph of y = x^2 - 3 as an example and shows how to approximate the slope of the tangent line using the secant line.
An introduction to derivatives and tangent lines to curves.
More free YouTube videos by Julie Harland are organized at http://yourmathgal.com