The document discusses differential calculus and derivatives. It defines a derivative as the rate of change of a function. Derivatives can be used to solve problems in physics, business, and economics. The document covers notation for derivatives, the definition of a derivative, and rules for computing derivatives of basic functions like constants, variables to a power, sums and differences of functions. It provides examples of computing derivatives of several multi-term functions.
The document discusses differential calculus and derivatives. It defines a derivative as the rate of change of a function. Derivatives can be used to solve problems in physics, business, and economics. The document covers notation for derivatives, the definition of a derivative, and rules for computing derivatives of basic functions like constants, variables to a power, sums and differences of functions. It provides examples of computing derivatives of several multi-term functions.
The document discusses differential calculus and derivatives. It defines a derivative as the rate of change of a function. Derivatives can be used to solve problems in physics, business, and economics. The document covers notation for derivatives, the definition of a derivative, and rules for computing derivatives of basic functions like constants, variables to a power, sums and differences of functions. It provides examples of computing derivatives of several multi-term functions.
The document discusses differential calculus and derivatives. It defines a derivative as the rate of change of a function. Derivatives can be used to solve problems in physics, business, and economics. The document covers notation for derivatives, the definition of a derivative, and rules for computing derivatives of basic functions like constants, variables to a power, sums and differences of functions. It provides examples of computing derivatives of several multi-term functions.
INTRODUCTION Differential Calculus deals with the study of the rates at which quantities change. It is one of the two principal areas of calculus (integration being the other). In this course, we use two tools for analyzing and describing the behavior of the functions: limits and derivatives. Students will be able to use these tools to solve application problems in a variety of settings ranging from physics to business and economics. DERIVATIVES Definition A function f(x) is called differentiable at x = a if f’(x) exists and f(x) is called differentiable on an interval if the derivative exists for each point in that interval.
Alternate Notation The typical derivative notation is the “prime” notation. However, there is another notation that is used on occasion so let’s cover that.
Given the function y = f(x) all of the following are equivalent and represent the derivative of f(x) with respect to x. 𝒅𝒇 𝒅𝒚 𝒅 𝒅 𝒇′ (𝒙) = 𝒚′ = = = (𝒇(𝒙)) = (𝒚) 𝒅𝒙 𝒅𝒙 𝒅𝒙 𝒅𝒙 Because we also need to evaluate derivatives on occasion we also need a notation for evaluating derivatives when using the fractional notation. So if we want to evaluate the derivative at x = a all of the following are equivalent. 𝒅𝒇 𝒅𝒚 𝒇′ (𝒂) = 𝒚′|𝒙=𝒂 = | = | 𝒅𝒙 𝒙=𝒂 𝒅𝒙 𝒙=𝒂
Note as well that on occasion we will drop the (x) part on the function to simply the notation somewhat. In these cases, the following are equivalent.
𝒇′ (𝒙) = 𝒇′
As a final note in this section, we’ll acknowledge the computing most derivatives directly from the definition is a fairly complex (and sometimes painful) process filled with opportunities to make mistakes. In a couple of section, we’ll start developing formulas and/or properties that will help us to take the derivative of many of the common functions so we won’t need to resort to the definition of the derivative too often.
DIFFERENTIATION FORMULAS We will introduce most of these formulas over the course of the next several sections. We will start in this section with some of the basic properties and formulas. We will give the properties and formulas in this section in both “prime” notation and “fraction” notation.
Properties ′ 𝒅 𝒅𝒇 𝒅𝒈 1) (𝒇(𝒙) ± 𝒈(𝒙)) = 𝒇′(𝒙) ± 𝒈′(𝒙) or (𝒇(𝒙) ± 𝒈(𝒙)) = ± 𝒅𝒙 𝒅𝒙 𝒅𝒙 In other words, to differentiate a sum or difference, all we need to do is differentiate the individual terms and then put them back together with appropriate signs. Note as well that this property is not limited to two functions. ′ 𝒅 𝒅𝒇 2) (𝒄𝒇(𝒙)) = 𝒄𝒇′(𝒙) or 𝒅𝒙 (𝒄𝒇(𝒙)) = 𝒄 𝒅𝒙 , c is any number In other words, we can “factor” a multiplicative constant out of a derivative if we need to.
Next, let’s take a quick look at a couple of basic “computation” formulas that will allow us to actually compute some derivatives.
Formulas 𝒅 1) If 𝒇(𝒙) = 𝒄 then 𝒇′ (𝒙) = 𝟎 or (𝒄) =𝟎 𝒅𝒙 The derivative of a constant is zero.
𝒅 2) If 𝒇(𝒙) = 𝒙𝒏 then 𝒇′ (𝒙) = 𝒏𝒙𝒏−𝟏 or (𝒙𝒏 ) = 𝒏𝒙𝒏−𝟏 𝒅𝒙 This formula is sometimes called the power rule. All we are doing here is bringing the original exponent down in front and multiplying and then subtracting one from the original exponent.
Example: Differentiate each of the following functions.
Solutions: (a) 𝑓(𝑥) = 15𝑥 100 − 3𝑥 12 + 5𝑥 − 46 In this case, we have the sum and difference of four terms and so we will differentiate each of the terms using the first property from the above and then put them back together with the proper sign. Also, for each term with a multiplicative constant remember that all we need to do is “factor” the constant out (using the second property) and then do the derivative.
𝑓 ′ (𝑥) = 15(100)𝑥 99 − 3(12)𝑥 11 + 5(1)𝑥 0 − 0
= 𝟏𝟓𝟎𝟎𝒙𝟗𝟗 − 𝟑𝟔𝒙𝟏𝟏 + 𝟓
Notice that in the third term the exponent was a one and so upon subtracting 1 from the original exponent, we get a new exponent of zero. Now, recall that x0 = 1. Don’t forget to do any basic arithmetic that needs to be done such as any multiplication and/or division in the coefficients.
(b) 𝑔(𝑡) = 2𝑡 6 + 7𝑡 −6 The point of this problem is to make sure that you deal with the negative exponents correctly. Here is the derivative.
𝑔′(𝑡) = 2(6)𝑡 5 + 7(−6)𝑡 −7
= 𝟏𝟐𝒕𝟓 − 𝟒𝟐𝒕−𝟕 Make sure that you correctly deal with the exponents in these cases, especially the negative exponents. It is an easy mistake to “go to other way” when subtracting one off from a negative exponent and get -6t-5 instead of the correct -6t-7.
1 (c) 𝑦 = 8𝑧 3 − + 𝑧 − 23 3𝑧 5 Now in this function, the second term is not correctly set up for us to use the power rule. The power rule requires that the term be a variable to a power only and the term must be in the numerator. So, prior to differentiating, we first need to rewrite the second term into a form that we can deal with. 1 𝑦 = 8𝑧 3 − 𝑧 −5 + 𝑧 − 23 3
Note that we left the 3 in the denominator and only moved the variable up to the numerator. Remember that the only thing that gets an exponent is the term that is immediately to the left of the exponent. If we’d wanted the three to come up as well we’d have written, 1 (3𝑧)5 so be careful with this! It’s very common mistake to bring the 3 up in the numerator as well at this stage. Now that we’ve gotten the function rewritten into a proper from that allows us to use the Power Rule, we can differentiate the function. Here is the derivative for this part. 1 𝑦′ = 8(3)𝑧 2 − (−5)𝑧 −6 + (1)𝑧 0 − 0 3 𝟓 𝒚′ = 𝟐𝟒𝒛𝟐 + 𝒛−𝟔 + 𝟏 𝟑
3 2 (d) 𝑇(𝑥) = √𝑥 + 9 √𝑥 7 − 5 √𝑥 2 All of these terms in this function have roots in them. In order to use the power rule, we need to first convert all the roots to fractional exponents. Again, remember that the Power Rule requires us to have a variable to a number and that it must be in the numerator of the term. Here is the function written in “proper” form. 1 1 2 𝑇(𝑥) = 𝑥 2 + 9(𝑥 7 )3 − 1 (𝑥 2 )5 1 7 2 = 𝑥 2 + 9𝑥 3 − 2 𝑥5 1 7 2 = 𝑥 2 + 9𝑥 3 − 2𝑥 −5
In the last two terms, we combined the exponents, you should always do this kind of term, in a later section, we will learn of a technique that would allow us to differentiate this term without combining exponents, however it will take significantly more work to do. Also don’t forget to move the term in the denominator of the third term up to the numerator. We can now differentiate the function. 1 1 7 4 2 7 𝑇′(𝑥) = 𝑥 −2 + 9 ( ) 𝑥 3 − 2 (− ) 𝑥 −5 2 3 5 𝟏 −𝟏 𝟔𝟑 𝟒 𝟒 −𝟕 = 𝒙 𝟐+ 𝒙𝟑 + 𝒙 𝟓 𝟐 𝟑 𝟓 Make sure that you can deal with the fractional exponents. (e) ℎ(𝑥) = 𝑥 𝜋 − 𝑥 √2 In all of the previous examples, the exponents have been nice integers or fractions. This is usually what we’ll see in this class. 𝒉′ (𝒙) = 𝝅𝒙𝝅−𝟏 − √𝟐𝒙√𝟐−𝟏 The answer is a little messy and we won’t reduce the exponent down to decimals. However, this problem is not terribly difficult it just looks that way initially.
PRODUCT AND QUOTIENT RULE
First, let’s take a look at why we have to be careful with products and quotients. Suppose that we have two functions f(x) = x3 and g(x) = x6. Let’s start by computing the derivative of the two product of these two functions. This is easy enough to do directly. (𝑓𝑔)′ = (𝑥 3 𝑥 6 )′ = (𝑥 9 )′ = 9𝑥 8
Remember that on occasion, we will drop the (x) part on the functions to simplify notation somewhat. We’ve done that in the work above.
Now, let’s try the following.
𝑓 ′ (𝑥) 𝑔′ (𝑥) = (3𝑥 2 )(6𝑥 5 ) = 18𝑥 7
So, we can very quickly see that.
(𝑓𝑔)′ ≠ 𝑓 ′ 𝑔′
In other words, the derivative of a product is not the product of the derivatives.
Product Rule If the two functions f(x) and g(x) are differentiable (i.e. the derivative exist) then the product is differentiable and, (𝒇 𝒈)′ = 𝒇′ 𝒈 + 𝒇 𝒈′
Quotient Rule If the two functions f(x) and g(x) are differentiable (i.e. derivative exist) then the quotient is differentiable and,
𝒇 ′ 𝒇′ 𝒈 − 𝒇 𝒈′ ( ) = 𝒈 𝒈𝟐
Let’s do a couple of examples of the product rule.
Example: Differentiate each of the following functions.
3 (a) 𝑦 = √𝑥 2 (2𝑥 − 𝑥 2 ) Now, let’s do the problem here. There’s not really a lot to do here other than use the product rule. However, before doing that we should convert the radical to fractional exponent as always. 2 𝑦 = 𝑥 3 (2𝑥 − 𝑥 2 ) Now, let’s take the derivative. So we take the derivative of the first function times the second then add on to that the first function times the derivative of the second function. 2 1 2 𝑦 ′ = 𝑥 −3 (2𝑥 − 𝑥 2 ) + 𝑥 3 (2 − 2𝑥) 3 4 2 2 5 2 5 𝑦 ′ = 𝑥 3 − 𝑥 3 + 2𝑥 3 − 2𝑥 3 3 3 ′ 𝟏𝟎 𝟐 𝟖 𝟓 𝒚 = 𝒙𝟑 − 𝒙𝟑 𝟑 𝟑
(b) 𝑓(𝑥) = (6𝑥 3 − 𝑥)(10 − 20𝑥)
This one is actually easier than the previous one. Let’s just run it through the product rule. 𝑓′(𝑥) = (6(3)𝑥 2 − 1)(10 − 20𝑥) + (6𝑥 3 − 𝑥)(−20) 𝑓 ′ (𝑥) = (18𝑥 2 − 1)(10 − 20𝑥) + (6𝑥 3 − 𝑥)(−20) 𝑓 ′ (𝑥) = 180𝑥 2 − 360𝑥 3 − 10 + 20𝑥 − 120𝑥 3 + 20𝑥 𝒇′ (𝒙) = −𝟒𝟖𝟎𝒙𝟑 + 𝟏𝟖𝟎𝒙𝟐 + 𝟒𝟎𝒙 − 𝟏𝟎
Let’s have examples of the quotient rule.
Example: Differentiate each of the following functions.
3𝑧 + 9 (a) 𝑊(𝑥) = 2−𝑧 There isn’t a lot to do here other that the use the quotient rule. Here is the work for this function. 3(2 − 𝑧) − (3𝑧 + 9)(−1) 𝑊′𝑧 = (2 − 𝑧)2 6 − 3𝑧 + 3𝑧 + 9 𝑊′𝑧 = (2 − 𝑧)2 𝟏𝟓 𝑾′ 𝒛 = (𝟐 − 𝒛)𝟐
