3.

2 Differentiability
Greg Kelly, Hanford High School, Richland, Washington Photo by Vickie Kelly, 2003
Arches National Park
Greg Kelly, Hanford High School, Richland, Washington Photo by Vickie Kelly, 2003
Arches National Park
To be differentiable, a function must be continuous and
smooth.
Derivatives will fail to exist at:
corner cusp
vertical tangent
discontinuity
( )
f x x =
( )
2
3
f x x =
( )
3
f x x =
( )
1, 0
1, 0
x
f x
x
<

>

Most of the functions we study in calculus will be differentiable.

Derivatives on the TI-89:

You must be able to calculate derivatives with the
calculator and without.
Today you will be using your calculator, but be sure to do
them by hand when called for.
Remember that half the test is no calculator.

3
y x = Example:
Find at x = 2.
dy
dx
d ( x ^ 3, x )
ENTER
returns
2
3x
This is the derivative symbol, which is .
8
2nd
It is not a lower case letter d.
Use the up arrow key to highlight and press .
2
3x
ENTER
3 ^ 2 2 x x =
ENTER
returns 12
or use:
( )
^3, 2 d x x x = ENTER

Warning:
The calculator may return an incorrect value if you
evaluate a derivative at a point where the function is not
differentiable.
Examples:
( )
1/ , 0 d x x x =
returns

( ) ( )
, 0 d abs x x x =
returns
1

Graphing Derivatives
Graph: ( )
ln , y d x x = What does the graph look like?
This looks like:
1
y
x
=
Use your calculator to evaluate: ( )
ln , d x x
1
x
The derivative of is only defined for , even though
the calculator graphs negative values of x.
ln x 0 x >

Two theorems:
If f has a derivative at x = a, then f is continuous at x = a.
Since a function must be continuous to have a derivative,
if it has a derivative then it is continuous.

( )
1
2
f a ' =
( )
3 f b ' =
Intermediate Value Theorem for Derivatives
Between a and b, must take
on every value between and .
f
'
1
2
3
If a and b are any two points in an interval on which f is
differentiable, then takes on every value between
and .
f
'
( )
f a
'
( )
f b
'
t