Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Techniques To Dervitives
Techniques To Dervitives
Techniques To Dervitives
2.3 Introduction to Techniques of Differentiation Notes.notebook March 28, 2014
PAGE 155
2.3 Introduction to Techniques of Differentiation
In the last section we defined the derivative of a function f as a limit,
and used that limit to calculate a few 'simple' derivatives. In this
section we will develop some important theorems that will enable
us to calculate derivatives more efficiently.
Different Theorems for Finding Derivatives
1. The Constant Rule for any constant c
That is, the derivative of any constant is 0.
EXAMPLES
f(x) = 4 f(x) = 5
2. The Power Rule For any real number n
In other words, to find the derivative of xn reduce the exponent by
1 and multiply by the original exponent.
EXAMPLES
f(x) = x6
3. The Constant Multiple Rule If f is differentiable at x and c is any
real number, then cf is also differentiable at x
EXAMPLES
1
32012 2.3 Introduction to Techniques of Differentiation Notes.notebook March 28, 2014
4. The Sum and Difference Rules If f and g are differentiable at x,
then so are f + g and f g
In other words, the derivative of a sum equals the sum of the
derivatives, and the derivatives of a difference equals the difference
of the derivatives.
EXAMPLE
EXAMPLE
At what points, if any, does the graph of
y = x2 2x 8 have a horizontal tangent line?
Higher Derivatives
The derivative f' of a function f is itself a function and hence may
have a derivative of its own. If f' is differentiable, then its derivative is
denoted by f'' and is called the second derivative of f. As long as we
have differentiability, we can continue the process of differentiating
to obtain third, fourth, fifth, and even higher derivatives of f. These
successive derivatives are denoted by
Other common notations are
EXAMPLE
Find f(4) of f(x) = 4x3 5x2 + 8x 14
2
Find f''' of f(x) =
x
HW: PAGES 161 162, PROBLEMS 2 24(E), 34, 42bd, 44b, 45c, 51, 66