Um...Calculus?

[twocowboywaltz]

Anyone well-versed on this topic enough to provide a student with some help?

This is going to sound so random, but I'm doing some problems from my textbook at the moment. The section is indefinite integrals right now and antidifferentiation via substitution:

(let's see if I can do this here without totally screwing up any chances of conveying the problem!)

33. Take the indefinite integral of (...lol I don't know how to do that little squiggly line on the keyboard for integration):
       [(ln^6 x) / x] dx

Edit: Found a thing on the Web for equations!


I have no idea what that superscript "6" is doing there. I am -assuming- it's a typo and the book really means (ln x)^6 (because then I'd actually know how to do it), but that's only because I've never encountered this "superscript after a logarithm" before, and the book doesn't even explain this. I'm probably wrong on both counts, hehe.

Thanks to anyone taking the time to read this! I've been Googling this topic for a while now and come up with nothing.
Kinda weird to be posting this on a Brokeback forum (lol), but I'll take any help I can get!

[Ellemeno]

Good for you for asking for help, and good luck.  Pretty much everything in school was easy for me til I hit calculus.  I dropped the class because I was going to fail it.  So again, good luck! 

[injest]

If Wayne was on HE could help...he is very very smart!

[Clyde-B]

Hi twocowboy waltz,

You are correct, the superscript is an alternate notation for an exponent.  If it was a subscript, it would indicate a base.

ln^6(x) = [ln(x)]^6 

Putting it on the function makes it confusing, but it is acceptable.

[injest]

Hi twocowboy waltz,

You are correct, the superscript is an alternate notation for an exponent.  If it was a subscript, it would indicate a base.

ln^6(x) = [ln(x)]^6 

Putting it on the function makes it confusing, but it is acceptable.

There!! I knew there was some smart people on here...thanks Clyde!!

[twocowboywaltz]

Hi twocowboy waltz,

You are correct, the superscript is an alternate notation for an exponent.  If it was a subscript, it would indicate a base.

ln^6(x) = [ln(x)]^6 

Putting it on the function makes it confusing, but it is acceptable.

Thanks a lot!

I was fairly certain that if it were anything involving new material, it would have been brought to my attention either in the book or in my notes somewhere.
I knew it couldn't be a base, since natural log is base e. I had an inkling that it would be similar to trig functions such as:
                  sin^2 (x) = (sin x)^2
but I wasn't sure.

I am right about the above, though?
Man, why'd they have to make things so confusing? Geez, it's like they DON'T want people to understand what they're talking about.   
And my Calc teacher is always talking about how mathematicians "are lazy". Pfft. If they were truly lazy, they wouldn't be doing math, hehe.

[jstephens9]

I definitely wish you the best of luck. I am fairly knowledgeable about many subjects, but calculus is not one of them 

[Clyde-B]

Yep same deal,

They put the exponent on the function to indicate you're operating on the value of the function using the variable and not just the value of the variable by itself.

Personally, I prefer lots of parentheses - less confusing.

[sin(x)]^2

But it ain't as purty.

["Joseph Golden"]

I hate Maths, I gave it up for extra English.  

Now if we talking about a english subjest than i'd be a little more helpful.  

[twocowboywaltz]

I hate Maths, I gave it up for extra English.  

Now if we talking about a english subjest than i'd be a little more helpful.  

I admit it, I guess I'm a math geek. English is...tolerable for me. I used to love English a few years ago, when my teacher was really fun and engaging--and I actually felt like I was looking forward to each class, but the good days are over.

We're reading Shakespeare right now (Hamlet, actually), and while I don't hate it, I can't really say I like it either (SPARKNOTES saved my life!!).

I wish we could read stories that I actually was interested in. Like Brokeback, you know?

I'll be sure to come to you for help when I need it in English!