Image via Wikipedia This is the second post (here’s the first one) about an approach to introducing the derivative to calculus students that is counter to what I’ve seen in textbooks and other ...

Journal of Applied Probability, Vol. 43, No. 1 (Mar., 2006), pp. 185-194 (10 pages) Local linear approximations have been the main component in the construction of a class of effective numerical ...

While I do spend lots of time pushing the idea of linear approximations on my students, we do need nonlinear functions to describe most interesting physical phenomena.