http://www.intmath.com/Differentiation-transcendental/5_Derivative-logarithm.

php

6. Derivative of the Exponential Function

by M. Bourne The derivative of ex is quite remarkable. The expression for the derivative is the same as the expression that we started with; that is, ex!

What does this mean? It means the slope is the same as the function value (the y-value) for all points on the graph. Example: Let's take the example when x = 2. At this point, the y-value is e2 7.39. Since the derivative of ex is ex, then the slope of the tangent line at x = 2 is also e2 7.39. We can see that it is true on the graph:

Let's now see if it is true at some other values of x.

We can see that at x = 4, the y-value is 54.6 and the slope of the tangent (in red) is also 54.6. At x = 5, the y-value is 148.4, as is the value of the derivative and the slope of the tangent (in green).

Other Formulas for Derivatives of Exponential Functions

If u is a function of x, we can obtain the derivative of an expression in the form eu:

If we have an exponential function with some base b, we have the following derivative:

[These formulas are derived using first principles concepts. See the chapter on Exponential and Logarithmic Functions if you need a refresher on exponential functions before starting this section.]

Example 1:
Find the derivative of y = 103x.

Answer

Example 2:
Find the derivative of y = ex2.

Answer

Example 3:
Find the derivative of y = sin(e3x). Answer

Example 4:
Find the derivative of y = esin x.

In LiveMath, you can change the function to check your own differentiations. LIVEMath Normal answer: Answer

Example 5:
Find the derivative of

Answer

Exercises
(1) Find the derivative of y = 10x2.

Answer Here, b = 10 and u = x2. We have:

So

(2) Find the derivative of

Answer

This is a product. Let u = cos 2x and

and So

(3) Find the derivative of

Answer

Let

then y = u3. So

and

So

(4) Show that

satisfies the equation

Answer

so

and

So

Differentiation Formulas
1. 2. 3.

4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

15.

16. 17. 18.

19.

20.

5. Derivative of the Logarithmic Function

by M. Bourne

Later On this Page

Derivative of y = ln x Derivative of a log of a function Derivative of logs with base other than e

First, let's look at a graph of the log function with base e, that is f(x) = loge(x) (usually written "ln x"). The tangent at x = 2 is included on the graph.

The slope of that tangent of y = ln x at x = 2 is 1/2. (We can observe this from the graph, by looking at the ratio rise/run).

Explore the slope of log x

In the following interactive graph, the blue curve is y = ln x and the magenta line is the tangent at a point on the curve.

You can drag the dot representing the point (drag in a left-right motion), and observe the changing slope. For each value of x, what is the slope? (Pause at x = 1, x = 2, x = 3, etc and observe the slope at those points.) JSXGraph v0.81 Copyright (C) see http://jsxgraph.org 0,0
o +

c d m=5 m 1 -2 -1 1 2 3 4 5 -4 -3 -2 -1 1 2 3 Drag the dot left and right to see the changing slope. From the above exercise, hopefully you found the following slopes for various values of x. If y = ln x, x 1 2 3 4 5 slope of graph 1 1/2 1/3 1/4 1/5 1/x 1 1/2 1/3 1/4 1/5 We see that the slope of the graph for each value of x is equal to 1/ x. This works for any positive value of x (we cannot have the logarithm of a negative number, of course). If we did many more examples, we could conclude that the derivative of the logarithm function y = ln x is

dy/dx = 1/x. Note 1: Actually, this result comes from first principles. Note 2: We are using logarithms with base e. If you need a reminder about log functions, check out Log base e from before.

Derivative of the Logarithm Function y = ln x

The derivative of the logarithmic function y = ln x is given by:

You will see it written in a few other ways as well. The following are equivalent:

If y = ln x, then For some problems, we can use the logarithm laws to simplify our log expression before differentiating it.

Example 1
Find the derivative of y = ln 2x

Answer We use the log law: log ab = log a + log b We can write our question as:

y = ln 2x = ln 2 + ln x Now, the derivative of a constant is 0, so

So we are left with

(from our formula above) The final answer is:

We can see from the following graph that the slope of y = ln 2x (curve in black, tangent in red) is the same as the slope of y = ln x (curve in blue, tangent in pink), at the point x = 2.

Example 2
Find the derivative of y = ln x2

Answer We use the log law: log an = n log a So we can write the question as y = ln x2 = 2 ln x The derivative will be simply 2 times the derivative of ln x. So the answer is:

We can see from the graph of y = ln x2 (curve in black, tangent in red) that the slope is twice the slope of y = ln x (curve in blue, tangent in pink).

Derivative of y = ln u (where u is a function of x)

Unfortunately, we can only use the logarithm laws to help us in a limited number of logarithm differentiation question types. Most often, we need to find the derivative of a logarithm of some function of x. For example, we may need to find the derivative of y = 2 ln (3x2 1). We need the following formula to solve such problems. If y = ln u and u is some function of x, then:

where u' is the derivative of u Another way to write this is

You might also see the following form. It means the same thing. If y = ln f(x), then the derivative of y is given by:

Example 3
Find the derivative of y = 2 ln (3x2 1).

Answer We put u = 3x2 1 Then the derivative of u is given by: u' = 6x So the final answer is :

Example 4
Find the derivative of y = ln(1 2x)3.

Here it is in LiveMath: LIVEMath Normal answer:

Answer First, we simplify our log expression using the log law: log an = n log a We can write y = ln(1 2x)3 = 3 ln(1 2x) Then we put u = 1 2x So u' = -2

So our answer is:

Example 5

Find the derivative of

Answer First, we use the following log laws to simplify our logarithm expression: log ab = log a + log b and log an = n log a So we can write our question as:

Next, we use the following rule (twice) to differentiate the two log terms:

For the first term, u = sin 2x u' = 2 cos 2x For the second term, we put u = x2 + 1, giving u' = 2x So our final answer is:

Differentiating Logarithmic Functions with Bases other than e

If u = f(x) is a function of x, and y = logb u is a logarithm with base b, then we can obtain the derivative of the logarithm function with base b using:

where u' is the derivative of u logbe is a constant. See change of base rule to see how to work out such constants on your calculator.) Note 1: This formula is derived from first principles. Note 2: If we choose e as the base, then the derivative of ln u, where u is a function of x, simply gives us our formula above:

[Recall that logee = 1.] [See the chapter on Exponential and Logarithmic Functions base e if you need a refresher on all this.]

Example 6
Find the derivative of y = log26x.

Answer We begin by using the following log rule to simplify our question: log ab = log a + log b

We can write our question as: y = log26x = log26 + log2x The first term, log26, is a constant, so its derivative is 0. The derivative of the second term is as follows, using our formula:

The term on the top, log2e, is a constant. If we need a decimal value, we can work it out using change of base as follows:

Example 7
Find the derivative of y = 3 log7(x2 + 1).

Answer We put u = x2 + 1, giving u' = 2x Applying the formula, we have:

The value 3.083 comes from using the change of base rule.

Note: Where possible, always use the properties of logarithms to simplify the process of obtaining the derivatives.

Exercises
1. Find the derivative of y = ln(2x3 x)2.

Answer y = ln(2x3 x)2 = 2 ln(2x3 x) Put u = 2x3 x so u' = 6x 1 This gives us:

x 0.5,

x0

NOTE: We need to be careful with the domain of this solution, as it is only correct for certain values of x. The graph of y = ln(2x3 - x)2 is defined for all x except x = -0.5, x = 0 and x = 0.5. Its graph is as follows:

The graph of y = 2 ln(2x3 - x), however, is only defined for a more limited domain (since we cannot have the logarithm of a negative number.) So we can only have x in the range -0.5 < x < 0 and x > 0.5.

So when we find the differentiation of a logarithm using the shortcut given above, we need to be careful that the domain of the function and the domain of the derivative are stated.

2. Find the derivative of y = ln(cos x2).

Answer Firstly,

So

3. Find the derivative of

y = x ln3 x.

Answer The notation y = x(ln3 x) means y = x(ln x)3 Note that we cannot use the log law log an = n log a Our expression is not y = x ln x3 The brackets make all the difference! This is a product of x and (ln x)3. So

4. Find the derivative of 3 ln xy + sin y = x2.

Answer

We need to recognise that this is an implicit function. We can simplify it first:

Taking derivatives:

Collecting terms gives us:

5. Find the derivative of y = (sin x)x by first taking logarithms of each side of the equation.

Answer NOTE: This has an exponent which is variable. We cannot use our formula

from before. Now

So