Bridge Activities for Week 1

For a Calculus class:

• Problem #1
  The chemistry and physics books are full of functions. Bring two functions back, dead or alive. Your description of the function must include a clear definition of all variables and parameters involved. What is the domain for the function? What is the range? Include a complete reference (book, page, and figure or equation number, if relevant).
  
  
• Problem #2
  Professor Kildahl from the Chemistry Department has collected much of the material from the basic chemistry course in his web site. The section on Intermolecular Forces has some nice functions and some nicer graphs. Collect some functions from Professor Kildahl's site. Include a concise description of the function, defining all parameters and variables.
  
  
• Problem #3
  The first chemistry labs involve fitting curves to data. The students use a simple spreadsheet application to look for the best curve to fit a given set of data points. Some of the data have a clear linear relation, The students are asked to explore different functional relationships by plotting the data on different scales. (So, the students see and work with logarithms long before they are "officially sanctioned" in calculus II.) Include a complete reference (book, page, and figure or equation number, if relevant).
  
  
• There are additional problems here.