Official 2008 Calculus AB FRQ Discussion

TheMathProf
Sat, 10 May 2008 17:52:40 +0000

You probably what have to use a different variable (instead of t) and define that variable for the problem, since t is already defined for their problem.

But if you said something along the lines of “Let u = number of minutes since the oil spill started” and defined everything in terms of u, then I think you would be in perfect shape.

I knew this one person this year who could never quite seem to tell what the question was asking who told me that he put “Let u = number of minutes since the recovery device started working” and put everything in terms of u, and as best I can tell, he’ll be fine, since he specified what u represented, even though a variable already existed for that purpose. But it seems hokey to me.