Hello all,
I am having some trouble with answering the problem below, mostly because I do not know what the letters stand for and what kind of graph is meant to be drawn. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

For a particle going in a circle with speed U, draw a graph showing:
x(t)
y(t)
u(t)=dx/dt
v(t)=dy/dt
du/dt
dv/dt

I'll define the terms for you :

x(t) means the particles horizontal position with respect to time. Imagine an ant sitting on a turntable - as it turms the ant's horizontal position cycles from left to right and back again, in a sine wave pattern.

y(t) means the particle's vertical position with respect to time. It cycles up and down just like x(t) cycles left and right, but is 90 degrees out of phase.

u(t)=dx/dt means that the functon u(t) is equal to the rate of change of x(t) with respect to time. In other words - it's the velocity of the particle in the horizontal direction.

v(t) = dy/dt means that the functon v(t) is equal to the rate of change of y(t) with respect to time. In other words - the velocity of the particle in the vertical direction.

du/dt means the rate of change of u with respect to time. Since u is a velocity, its rate of change is the particle's acceleration in the horizontal direction.

dv/dt means the rate of change of v with respect to time. Since v is a velocity, it's rate of change is the particle's acceleration in the vertical direction.

Since the assignment is using notation that comes from calculus, and yet you seem to be unfamiliar with it, I'm wondering how it is that you are being asked to do this?

I am currently in an oceanography class that so far is very heavy into calculus and physics... I am a biology major and haven't taken any math courses for quite some time. It seems I have horrible memory. Thank you so much for defining those terms. I really appreciate it.