Tangent Lines, Chained

You'll learnto run Euler's method one row at a time, to size and count and point the steps correctly, and to say which side of the true value your estimate lands on before you know the true value.

Euler's method solves a differential equation the way you would cross a dark room: take the direction you have, move a short distance, ask again, repeat. The whole method is one tangent-line step, and the whole difficulty is remembering to ask again. Twelve short steps; press Next for each one.

12 STEPS · 6 QUICK CHECKS · RE-ASK THE SLOPE AT EVERY NEW POINT · v2

each step re-asks the equation where it is standing

Before you start

What you're looking at

A slope field, and a chain of straight steps walked across it. Each step starts where the last one ended.

The question

How wide is a step, how many of them, which way do they go — and is the direction re-asked at every new point, or reused from the first?

Step 1 / 12