Topic

Differentiation and its application

Isaac Newton obtained these rules in
the early 18th century. They followed
from the first principle approach to
differentiating and make life much
easier for us
 What is Differentiation?

Differentiation is all about

finding rates of change of one
quantity compared to another. We
need differentiation when the rate of
change is not constant.
 Why Study Differentiation
There are many applications of differentiation in
science and engineering

Differentiation is also used in analysis of finance

and economics

One important application of differentiation is in the

area of optimization, which means finding the
condition for a maximum (or minimum) to occur

This is important in business (cost reduction, profit

increase) and engineering (maximum strength,
minimum cost.)
Instantaneous Rate of Change

The derivative is the instantaneous rate

of change of a function with respect to one
of its variables The derivative tells us the
rate of change of one quantity compared to
another at a particular instant or point (so
we call it "instantaneous rate of change").
Practical Application
Suppose that a particle is moving along a straight
line. The motion is analytically represented by:
S=f(t)

It is called instantaneous velocity at time t

 Higher Derivatives :

We can continue to find the

derivatives of a derivative. We find the
second derivative by taking the
derivative of the first derivative, third
derivative by taking the derivative of
the second derivative... etc
 Finding the slope of the tangent line

This is equivalent to finding the slope

of the tangent line to the function at a
point.
Example

Let P = (x,y) and Q := (a,b). Let : 

Then the slop of a line
When is a function differentiable?

A function is differentiable when the

definition of differentiation can be
applied in a meaningful manner to it
When would this defintion not apply

It would a not apply when the limit

does not exist. Then we want to look
at the conditions for the limits to exist
Derivative of a constant : 

This is basic. In English, it means that

if a quantity has a constant value,
then the rate of change is zero
 Constant product:
Here, y is some function of x. It means that
if we are finding the derivative of a constant
times that function, it is the same as finding
the derivative of the function first, then
multiplying by the constant.
 PRODUCT RULE : 
If u and v are two functions of x, then the
derivative of the product uv is given by...

In words, this can be remembered as: "The

derivative of a product of two functions is the first
times the derivative of the second, plus the second
times the derivative of the first."
 Chain Rule : 
To find the derivative of a function of a function, we need to use the Chain Rule:

This means we need to

Recognize u (always choose the inner-most expression, usually the part inside brackets, or under
the square root sign).
Then we need to re-express y in terms of u.
Then we differentiate y (with respect to u), then we re-express everything in terms of x.
The next step is to find du/dx.
Then we multiply dy/du and du/dx
Thanks