Adventure 13 – Critical Points & DiVA Reasoning

Maximum • Minimum • Inflection Point • Using derivatives to “read” a function

🎥 Watch First (optional)

📜 Read the Story (or Listen)

ATP: The Curve Behind Every Movement — a story about how a biological curve can be studied using the same ideas as motion graphs. ATP is the tiny energy molecule that powers every movement in your body — from running and jumping to simply breathing. In this story, you will see how the rise and fall of ATP can be studied using the same calculus ideas we use for motion graphs, critical points, and curves.

Open the story page

🧩 What you will do

  1. Activity 1: Study four “training” functions: , −x², , −x³. Compute f, f′, f″ values and identify max/min/inflection.
  2. Activity 2: Compute derivatives and find critical points. Then use a DiVA chart to draw A(t) and V(t) and draw the curve for D(t) based on the these and where the derivatives change signs (without finding many point for drawing full curves for D(t)).
  3. Activity 3: For this new D(t) Compute derivatives and find critical points. Then use a DiVA chart to draw A(t) and V(t) and draw the curve for D(t) based on the these and where the derivatives change signs (without finding many point for drawing full curves for D(t)).