AP Calculus AB

Antiderivatives,
Differential Equations,
and Slope Fields
 Review
• Consider the equation y = x
2

dy
= 2x Solution
dx
 Antiderivatives
• What is an inverse operation?

• Examples include:
 Addition and subtraction
 Multiplication and division
 Exponents and logarithms
 Antiderivatives
• Differentiation also has an inverse…

antidefferentiation
 Antiderivatives
• Consider the function F
whose derivative is given by .
f ( x ) = 5x 4
• What is ?

F ( x) F ( x) = x 5 Solution

• We say that F ( x ) is an antiderivative of f ( x ).

 Antiderivatives
( )
• Notice that we say F x is an antiderivative and
not the antiderivative. Why?

( )
• Since F x is an antiderivative of f ( x ), we can
( )
say that F ' x = f x . ( )
G ( x ) = x + 3 and H ( x ) = x − 2, find
5 5
• If

g ( x ) and h( x ) .
 Differential Equations
dy
• Recall the earlier equation = 2 x.
dx
• This is called a differential equation and could
also be written as dy = 2 xdx .

• We can think of solving a differential equation

as being similar to solving any other equation.
 Differential Equations
• Trying to find y as a function of x

• Can only find indefinite solutions

 Differential Equations
• There are two basic steps to follow:

1. Isolate the differential

2. Invert both sides…in other words, find
the antiderivative
 Differential Equations
• Since we are only finding indefinite
solutions, we must indicate the ambiguity
of the constant.
• Normally, this is done through using a
letter to represent any constant.
Generally, we use C.
 Differential Equations
dy
• Solve = 2x
dx
y = x2 + C Solution
 Slope Fields
• Consider the following:
HippoCampus
 Slope Fields
• A slope field shows the general “flow” of a
differential equation’s solution.

• Often, slope fields are used in lieu of

actually solving differential equations.
 Slope Fields
• To construct a slope field, start with a differential
equation. For simplicity’s sake we’ll use
dy = −2Fields
Slope xdx
• Rather than solving the differential equation,
we’ll construct a slope field
• Pick points in the coordinate plane
• Plug in the x and y values
• The result is the slope of the tangent line at that
point
 Slope Fields
• Notice that since there is no y in our equation,
horizontal rows all contain parallel segments.
The same would be true for vertical columns if
there were no x.

dy
• Construct a slope field for = x + y.
dx