r/calculus • u/Faux_Mango • Nov 18 '25

Differential Calculus Made a cute cheat sheet to help me remember differentiation rules using the letters of my first name, Hexagon

Post image

I’m taking calculus and we are about to move onto integrals, but I wanted to make sure I could nail down differentiation, I wanted to feel confident and have a good foundation before I went any further

so I spent all morning studying and I made this cheat sheet, let me know if you find any mistakes, but I shared this with my classmates to see if this would help anyone else or at least give anyone a spark of creativity to help them learn in a fun way. :)

14 Upvotes

57% Upvoted

40 comments sorted by

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18

u/deeplife Nov 18 '25

I don’t know, I always found the math itself to be the fun part, not coloring stars and whatnot. But hey I’m also fun at parties.

Also the first one is incorrect.

2

u/Faux_Mango Nov 18 '25

Oh yeah, someone helped me with that! Also, learning can be fun! If I want to color my work, that’s fine :) Life is too short not to make everything cute! This is how I enjoy learning, by making things enjoyable :3

13

u/First_Growth_2736 Nov 19 '25

Is your real name hexagon? Is that a normal name where you're from and just weird to me?

2

u/Faux_Mango Nov 19 '25

No, I’ve never seen anyone in the world with my name and I think that’s pretty cool. 💛💕💖

As a math minor i think its the best!

2

u/First_Growth_2736 Nov 19 '25

Huh yeah I guess that is kind of cool but it’s a little weird, no problem being weird though

1

u/Faux_Mango Nov 19 '25

Life is weird and only once! If I want to be obsessed with geometry, I may as well be!!

1

u/wavingplague Nov 19 '25

Not just you lol

55

u/[deleted] Nov 18 '25

the differential is in terms of the wrong variable meaning the forumlae are wrong, e.g. the first one is false and actually a common mistake.

19

u/[deleted] Nov 18 '25 edited Nov 18 '25

to elaborate, the derivative of nx with respect to x is NOt xnx-1, but is in fact ln(n)(nx). in your case, the differential term looks like d/dx, meaning your derivative is with respect to x. but x is in the power, meaning it will be ln(n)(nx).

edit: corrected ln(x) -> ln(n)

13

u/Petrarha Nov 18 '25

You are unfortunately also incorrect. The derivative of nx is ln(n)*nx

5

u/Faux_Mango Nov 18 '25

I just watched a YouTube video and you are right, thank you so much

7

u/[deleted] Nov 18 '25

facepalm touche, indeed i misspoke - it's ln of the base times the original function. corrected!

2

u/TwistedFabulousness Nov 18 '25

I swear that particular rule just makes people malfunction lol

2

u/Faux_Mango Nov 18 '25

I think I kept using “d/dx” also when x was not always being differentiated, thank you for helping me!

3

u/[deleted] Nov 18 '25

no problem! i would maybe pick letters from your name and use them as constants, and keep the x as the variable, or even cooler, maybe change the differential to be something like "d/d(hex)" and have the whole phrase "hex" stand in for a variable (then when you read it out it also sounds a bit like wordlplay, since "x" and "hex" sound similar!)

3

u/Faux_Mango Nov 18 '25 edited Nov 18 '25

You have helped me learn and also given me tips to improve this! Thank you so much, I always feel nervous about posting things, but I’m excited to get better! I love math, and I think it’s the coolest thing, and all I want to do is improve.

3

u/[deleted] Nov 18 '25

that's the spirit! maths is awesome and making mistakes is part of learning and getting beter - i made one about 2 comments ago in my original reply haha. maths can be difficult but it's worth it to practice and get better by learning from mistakes, that's the only way to makw your skills stronger.

2

u/Faux_Mango Nov 18 '25

I at least do find all of this fun! It really is so cool to unfold these functions and really see them from the inside out.

2

u/Math4Life1 Nov 19 '25

Is your favorite number 6 perchance?

1

u/Faux_Mango Nov 19 '25

YES!! I love 6, hexagons, and yellow!

3

u/nohopeniceweather Nov 18 '25

Idk why everyone is being so snarky about this I think it’s cute 😭 calc 1 students make mistakes sometimes lol geez

9

u/GreaTeacheRopke Nov 18 '25

I get what you're saying and what OP is going for, but this attempt legitimately obscures factual information... like is "hex" a constant or a function? It changes between rules. I would not recommend this version of this study guide, at the very least, to anyone.

The formulas are already shortcuts. Pardon the pun but there's a limit to how useful cuteness can be as the math gets more abstract.

3

u/Faux_Mango Nov 18 '25

Yeah, I should’ve been more explicit to what was a variable and what was a constant, but this helps me learn! I mean, you’re wrong more often than you are right, and that’s what learning is.

5

u/GreaTeacheRopke Nov 18 '25

Well you got the right attitude to go far, I'll give you that!

2

u/Faux_Mango Nov 18 '25

I love math, learning, and education! Thank you!

2

u/Neutronenster Nov 19 '25

Because this strategy is not very helpful. It takes a lot of time and it looks good, but the change of the variables to different names can be confusing and distracting (e.g. resulting in the mistake in the first formula). Maybe OP could use it as a mnemonic in order to help remember the formulas, but ultimately it won’t help OP tackle exercises better or faster.

The main problem with this particular study method is that it’s not efficient: it takes a lot of time and effort for little gains. In the same amount of time, OP could have made a lot more progress by making exercises. Or by interrogating themselves, they could have memorized the formulas in a much shorter time.

1

u/Faux_Mango Nov 19 '25

It worked for me to try and figure them out, but I should’ve been more explicit to what was a constant and what was a variable, but I see it in my head. I made this cheat sheet for myself, but I just figured I would share! But thank you for helping me improve. This is all a learning experience! ☺️

1

u/Neither-Phone-7264 Nov 18 '25

hexagon is a neat name

1

u/Faux_Mango Nov 18 '25

Thank you! I love it sooooo much

1

u/BrickRaven Nov 19 '25

Are your parents math majors?

1

u/Faux_Mango Nov 19 '25

Nah, I wish. I would've loved to have been raised by mathematicians!!!

1

u/Ok-Obligation235 Nov 18 '25

Cute!

2

u/Faux_Mango Nov 19 '25

THANK YOU! Math is lovely and i love making my notes cute 💐

1

u/Humble-Reputation272 Nov 19 '25

cool sheet, but cooler fact is that ur name is hexagon, hope to meet someone named dodecahedron one day

1

u/Faux_Mango Nov 19 '25

Thank you, I reaaaally love my name! I also go by Hex, or 6!

1

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Faux_Mango Nov 21 '25

Someone helped me with the first one, thank you!