Differentiation - GATE Study Material in

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Differentiation is one the two important operations, along with Integration, in Calculus.
These Free Study Notes are important for GATE EC, GATE EE, GATE ME, GATE CS, GATE
CE as well as other exams like BARC, BSNL, IES, DRDO etc.
These GATE Study Material can be downloaded in PDF so that your exam preparation is
made easy and you ace your paper. Before you start, make sure you go through the
basics of Engineering Mechanics though.

Recommended Reading
Types of Matrices
Properties of Matrices
Rank of a Matrix & Its Properties
Solution of a System of Linear Equations
Eigen Values & Eigen Vectors
Linear Algebra Revision Test 1
Laplace Transforms
Limits, Continuity & Differentiability
If the value of f'(x) is finite on (a, b) then it is said to be derivable on (a, b). The
derivatives of various functions with examples are given below.

Derivatives of Implicit Functions

The below example explains the method of derivative of implicit functions.

Example 1:
Find

dy
dx

, if y + sin y = cos x

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Solution:
dy

dy

+ cos y dx = sin x

dx
dy
dx

(1 + cos y) = sin x

dy

sin x

= 1+cos y , where y (2n + 1) n = 0, 1, 2

dx

Derivatives of Inverse Trigonometric Functions

The below example explains the method of derivative of Inverse Trigonometric
functions.

Example 2:
Find the value of f(x) where f(x) = sin-1 x

Solution:
Let y = sin-1 x sin y = x
dy

cos y dx = 1
dy
dx

= cos y

We know, sin2y + cos2y = 1

cos y = 1 sin2 y
cos y = 1 x 2
dy
dx

= 1x2

Note:
d
dx

(tan1 x) =

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1
1+x2

Logarithmic Differentiation
The below example explains the method of derivative of Logarithmic functions

Example 3:
Differentiate,

(x3)(x2 +4)
3x2 +4x+5

with respect to x.

Solution:
(x3)(x2 +4)

let y =

3x2 +4x+5

log y = 2 [log(x 3) + log(x 2 + 4) log(3x 2 + 4x + 5)]

1 dy

2x

6x+4

= 2 [x3 + x2 +4 3x2 +4x+5]

y dx
dy

(x3)(x2 +4)

= 2
dx

3x2 +4x+5

2x

6x+4

[x3 + x2 +4 3x2 +4x+5]

Derivatives of Functions in Parametric Forms

The below example explains the method of derivative functions in parametric form.

Example 4:
dy

Find, dx , if x = a( + sin ), y = a(1 cos )

Solution:
dx
d
dy
d
dy
dx

= a(1 + cos )
= a sin
=

dy
d
dx
d

a sin

= a(1+cos )

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dy
dx
dy
dx

2 sin cos
2 cos2

= tan 2

Example 5:
Find the value of

dy
dx

if x 3 + y 3 = a3

Solution:
Let x = a cos 3 and y = a sin3 which satisfies the above equation
dx
d
dy
d

= 3a cos 2 sin
= 3a sin2 cos

dy

=
dx

dy
d
dx
d

= tan = x

Second Order Derivative

So far we have seen only first order derivatives and second order derivative can be
obtained by again differentiating first order differential equation with respect to x.
dy

Let y = f(x)then dx = f(x) (1)

If f(x) is differentiable, we may differentiate above equation w.r.t x.
i. e.

dy

d2 y

dx dx

dx2

( ) is called the second order derivative of y w. r. t x and it is denoted by

Note:
Let the function f(x) be continuous on [a, b] and differentiable on the open interval (a,
b), then
1. f(x) is strictly increasing in [a, b] if f(x) > 0 for each x (a, b)
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2. f(x) is strictly decreasing in [a, b] if f(x) < 0 for each x (a, b)

3. f(x) is constant function in [a, b] if f(x)= 0 for each x (a, b)

Example 6:
Find the intervals in which the function f is given by
f(x)= sin x + cos x

: 0 x 2

is strictly increasing or strictly decreasing.

Solution:
We have, f(x) = sin x + cos x
f'(x) = cos x sin x
5

Now, f(x) = 0 gives sin x = cos x which gives that x = 4 ,

The point x =

and x =
5

Namely [0, 4 ) , (4 ,

5
4

in 0 x 2

divide the interval [0, 2] into three disjoint intervals,

5

) and ( 4 , 2]

Note that f(x) > 0 if x [0, 4 ) ( 4 , 2] that means f is strictly increasing in this
interval
5

Also, f(x) < 0 if x ( 4 ,

) that means f is strictly decreasing in this interval

In the next article we will see about Partial Differentials.

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