QR decomposition is widely used for solving the least squares problem. However, existing materials about it may be too abstract for non-mathematicians, especially STEM students, and/or require serious background in linear algebra. The paper describes theoretical background and examples of GNU Octave compatible MATLAB scripts that give relatively…

This paper examines prospective mathematics teachers' knowledge of asymptotes and asymptotic behaviour of functions in calculus. They are university students and future facilitators of knowledge in upper secondary education. We constructed a "reference epistemological model" to describe the knowledge about asymptotes for upper secondary…

In a recent submission to "The Physics Teacher," we related how trigonometric identities can be used to find the extremes of several functions in order to solve some standard physics problems that would usually be considered to require calculus. In this work, the functions to be examined are polynomials, which suggests the utilization of…

Polynomials with rational roots and extrema may be difficult to create. Although techniques for solving cubic polynomials exist, students struggle with solutions that are in a complicated format. Presented in this article is a way instructors may wish to introduce the topics of roots and critical numbers of polynomial functions in calculus. In a…

In a series of group activities supplemented with independent explorations and assignments, calculus students investigate functions similar to their own derivatives. Graphical, numerical, and algebraic perspectives are suggested, leading students to develop deep intuition into elementary transcendental functions even as they lay the foundation for…

In this paper, an investment problem is investigated in terms of elementary algebra, recurrence relations, functions, and calculus at high school level. The problem comes down to understanding the behaviour of a function associated with the problem and, in particular, to finding the zero of the function. A wider purpose is not only to formulate…

This paper reports the results of a research exploring the mathematical connections of pre-university students while they solving tasks which involving rates of change. We assume mathematical connections as a cognitive process through which a person finds real relationships between two or more ideas, concepts, definitions, theorems, procedures,…

Two points determine a line. Three noncollinear points determine a quadratic function. Four points that do not lie on a lower-degree polynomial curve determine a cubic function. In general, n + 1 points uniquely determine a polynomial of degree n, presuming that they do not fall onto a polynomial of lower degree. The process of finding such a…

Quantifier Elimination is a procedure that allows simplification of logical formulas that contain quantifiers. Many mathematical concepts are defined in terms of quantifiers and especially in calculus their use has been identified as an obstacle in the learning process. The automatic deduction provided by quantifier elimination thus allows…

Activities for Students appears five times each year in Mathematics Teacher, promoting student-centered activities that teachers can adapt for use in their own classroom. In the course of the activities presented here, students will "look for and make use of structure" by observing algebraic patterns in the power rule and "use…

Action-Process-Object-Schema theory (APOS) was applied to study student understanding of quadratic equations in one variable. This required proposing a detailed conjecture (called a genetic decomposition) of mental constructions students may do to understand quadratic equations. The genetic decomposition which was proposed can contribute to help…

The high school curriculum sometimes seems like a disconnected collection of topics and techniques. Theorems like the factor theorem and the remainder theorem can play an important role as a conceptual "glue" that holds the curriculum together. These two theorems establish the connection between the factors of a polynomial, the solutions…

The attainment and retention of later algebra skills in high school has been identified as a factor significantly impacting students' postsecondary success as STEM majors. Researchers maintain that learners develop meaning for algebraic procedures by forming connections to the basic number system properties. In the present study, the connections…

In this note, a new method for computing the partial fraction decomposition of rational functions with irreducible quadratic factors in the denominators is presented. This method involves polynomial divisions and substitutions only, without having to solve for the complex roots of the irreducible quadratic polynomial or to solve a system of linear…

The article begins with a well-known property regarding tangent lines to a cubic polynomial that has distinct, real zeros. We were then able to generalize this property to any polynomial with distinct, real zeros. We also considered a certain family of cubics with two fixed zeros and one variable zero, and explored the loci of centroids of…