Kristen Lloyd

Mrs. Strong

Precalculus

Midterm Paper

This year in Precalculus, we learned so many different things and concepts. The one I

most enjoyed and have seen it used in my own life since then had been finding the area under

the curve. The area under the curve is used exactly as it says, to find the area under the curve.

This is just an approximation of the area, but it is an accurate way to do this. There are three

different ways to do this: Left endpoint approximation, right endpoint approximation, and the

most accurate, the average of both of them combined. The graph below shows an example of

what is done when using this concept. There are small rectangles drawn inside the curve. These

rectangles give approximations that are more accurate than one or two rectangles. They are

then added together to give the overall approximation of the area. There is only one of these

rectangles highlighted in the example.

The example I will show and explain will be a combination of both right- and left-

endpoint rectangles. The example is shown below:

-Find the estimate for A(g, 4 X 6), where g(x)= x+ 4 . First, I start by graphing the

equation given. Then, I will draw in rectangles of any equal width. In this case, they will be .5
units long each, and this is shown on the graph. After that, the work will be shown for the right

endpoints, the left-endpoints, and then the average.

The area under the curve actually completely relates to another topic we learned right at

the same time, which is sigma notation. It relates so much so that the area under the curve can

be found using sigma notation. Instead of like my example up above, where I took area

separately and then added them together, a sigma can be used to make it much easier and

faster. The area under the curve is more like a visual way to see what happens in a sigma

notation, visually seeing the area cut into parts and then added together nicely in the end.

As I said earlier, I have seen how this concept is useful outside of the math classroom. In

the physics honors class earlier in the year, we did a whole project about rockets and the

science and physics behind them. We used the area under the curve in this project, to find how

far the rocket traveled in total. It is used in other applications as well in the real world. It is used
in more advanced physics and math classes and therefore in mathematician and physicist

careers. So, this would become very useful in my future if I wanted to pursue either of those

pathways of life.