Homo Loquens??

derivatives

I actually understood pretty much all of this page except for the equations--I can't do any math where I don't know what the symbols mean. In x'(t) = 3t^2 + 2, I have no idea what ' and ^ mean.

Another site has me wondering about something, and if anyone can give me a brief layman's definition, I sure would appreciate it: what is meant by Smoothing over Age and Time?
Harvard

Edit--dang, Ted, you snuck in while I was still researching!