Recent content by Antebellum

Homework Statement In organic chemistry, a methane molecule, CH4, is made of 4 hydrogen and one carbon atoms where each hydrogen is attached to a central carbon atom. The hydrogen atoms are located at a corner of a regular tetrahedron and the carbon is at the center. In coordinates where one...

Sorry for replying so late to you all - I ignored my homework over Thanksgiving break, lol - but just wanted to say that I finally figured out how to solve this problem. YAY. Thank you so much to everyone who nudged me in the right direction. :D

Do I need to start by taking the derivative? I found the slope of the line joining x and -x, and now I'm not sure what to do with it.

Thanks CompuChip! I did what you suggested and ended up getting x^2 / (1 + x^4) as the slope of the line, and y = (x^2 / (1 + x^4))x + b as the equation of the line. Still not seeing what I need to do next, though. :( I'm not understanding how to find b, or how I get x and -x out of this...

Homework Statement Two points on the curve y = x^3 / (1 + x^4) have opposite x-values, x and -x. Find the points making the slope of the line joining them greatest. Homework Equations Not certain which equations I'd need here, because I don't know how to begin solving this... The...

Thank you so much, LCKurtz! My problem was that I didn't express the derivative with positive exponents. I have the right answer now. Thanks! :D

Homework Statement Find the equation of the tangent line to the following curve at the indicated point: x^(2/3) + y^(2/3) = a^(2/3) at (a, 0) Homework Equations Power rule Chain rule The Attempt at a Solution (2/3)x^(-1/3) + [(2/3)y^(-1/3)](dy/dx) = [(2/3)a^(-1/3)](da/dx)...