Hergert Numbers: October 2023

Dr. Paul Gunsul proudly showing his Hergert Numbers spirit before lecturing on the topic in his Calculus class today.

How it all started

In the summer of 1994, I was teaching Calculus for the first time. When we got to the applications of derivatives, we talked about critical numbers being the potential relative extrema and identified them as points where f'(x)=0 or f'(x) is undefined. In the very next section, we came across possible inflection points that consisted of points where f"(x)=0 or f"(x) is undefined. I was surprised to see that there was no name for these points. So, I began calling them Hergert Numbers. In the years that followed, I taught the course many, many times. Each semester I would refer to these points as the Hergert Numbers, yet the term just didn't seem to be catching on - until now.

Hergert Numbers

Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Hergert Numbers still alive at Rock Valley College!

How it all started

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