General Derivative

Rules
Part 1
What Derivatives Really
Are
A derivative is a function of the slope of
any given graph a specified position of x, for
example the derivative of y=1 will simply be
0 because the slope of this graph is always
constant at 0. Qualitative analysis will not
always give us such a convenient answer,
however, so we will develop some
quantitative ways of determining these
slopes in the following slides.
Power Rule
 The power rule is used to find the derivative of
simple functions like: Cxⁿ where n and C are any
real numbers. (C will be explained in the
following slide)
 General Equation: Cxⁿ =Cnxn-1 dx
o Where C is a constant, and n is the exponent from
before
 EXAMPLE: Derivative of x3 is 3x2dx
 NOTE – dx should always be placed after the
derivative (or dn – where n is any variable in the
equation
 Practice – If you understand this you should be
able to mathematically prove the example that
was shown on the last slide
Multiplying a function by a
Constant
 When you’re multiplying any function by a
constant, that constant stays there after you
derive the equation.
 General Equation: Cf(x)=Cf’(x)
o where C is any constant and f(x) is any function of x
 Example: 5x2 derived is:10xdx where 5 is a
constant that is carried right throughout
Adding a Constant
 When you add a constant to a function, for
example C + f(x), the constant disappears
when you find the derivative. This should be
apparent if you understand the initial
example that was given on the second slide
(For example, y=x, y=x+2, y=x+4, etc. All
have the same slope)
Addition Rule
 When adding any functions together, the
derivative of them is the derivatives of the
two operations separately and added
together (ie. No special tricks to this).
 General Equation: g(x) + f(x) = g’(x)dx +
f’(x)dx – where g(x) and f(x) are any function
 Note – the ‘ in the f’(x) means the first
derivative. When finding a second derivative
you would write f”(x) or, another common
notation for alot of derivatives is F(n)(x) for
the nth derivative. (ie. F’’’(x) = F(3)(x))
Finding Derivatives with
respect to something (ie. dx)
Part 1important part of finding the slope of a
 A very
function is to understand that dy or dx on their
own are not the slope. The slope is actually
dy/dx, which is frequently expressed as y’
 Therefore, when we find the derivative of, for
example, y=x, we cannot stop after we find the
derivative of both side individually and ending
up with dy=dx, we must rearrange to get
dy/dx=?
 So, in most cases, when we say we are finding
the derivative ‘with respect to x’ that simply
means we are dividing everything by dx when
we find the derivative.
Finding Derivatives with
Respect to something (ie. dx)
Part 2 when we are finding a derivative ‘with
 Therefore,
respect to x’ it is simply a way of shortening the
time it takes to do a question, by already having
everything arranged properly.
 For example, on the last slide when we took the
derivative we did it the basic way, if we had
done it with respect to x we would have gotten
dy/dx = dx/dx, where dy/dx=y’ and dx/dx= 1.
Therefore, without any further rearranging we
ended up with the slope with the equation y’ = 1