Rates of change

<body bgcolor="#ffffff"> <p><font size="+2">When the Discovery space shuttle is launched, its speed increases continually until its booster engines separate from the shuttle. During the time it is continually speeding up, the shuttle is never moving at a constant speed. What, then, would it mean to say that at precisely 2.15823 seconds after launch the shuttle is traveling at precisely 183.8964 miles per hour?<br> </font></p> <table width="100%" border="1" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <tr> <td width="50%"><a href="SatKidsonRate.html" target="_blank">Replies from Saturday Math Club children</a></td> <td> <div align="right"> <a href="CalcStuOnRate.html" target="_blank">Replies from first semester calc students at end of term</a></div> </td> </tr> </table> <p></p> </body>