http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/ 2020-01-26T23:02:29-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/ http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/lib/images/favicon.ico text/html 2012-02-08T22:09:04-08:00 http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/portfolioswiki/whitepapers:mmm:start?rev=1328767744 Reflections on teaching the Murder Mystery Method (TD 2/12) Introducing the MMM When teaching the MMM, I typically start by drawing a tree diagram with a known example potential (for example, $xy$) at the top, and its gradient on the next line. I then take another set of derivatives, and point out that the mixed partial derivatives must agree. This process is the usual “derivative” test for a conservative vector field: Start with the second row, representing the components of the field,…