Chapter 3: The Derivative SMN3013

Chapter 3:
The Derivative
3.1 Tangent Line and Rates of Change
In Chapter 1, we showed how the notion of a limit could be used to find an equation of a
tangent line to a curve. At that stage in the text we did not have precise definitions of
tangent lines and limits to work with, so the argument was intuitive and informal.

However, now that limits have been defined precisely, we are in a position to give a
mathematical definition of the tangent line to a curve at a point
on the curve.

As illustrated in following figure, consider a point on the curve that is distinct

from P, and compute the slope of the secant line through P and Q:

If we let approach , then the point Q will move along the curve and approach the
point P. If the secant line through P and Q approaches a limiting position as ,
then we will regard that position to be the position of the tangent line at P.

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Stated another way, if the slope of the secant line through P and Q approaches a
limit as , then we regard that limit to be the slope of the tangent line at P.
Thus, we make the following definition:

**Note: the tangent line is then the line passing through the point with the
slope with equation given by

There is an alternative way of expressing Formula (1) that is commonly used. If we let
denote the difference

then the statement that is equivalent to the statement , so we can rewrite (1)
in terms of and as

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The process to determine the gradient by using limit is called differentiating with respect
to from the first principle.

 Example 3.1

Find an equation for the tangent line to the parabola at the point

Solution:
Solve using either one of following method:

(A) Applying formula in Definition with , and :

Thus, the tangent line to at (1, 1) has equation

or

(B) Applying the alternative formula, with and .

Thus, the tangent line to at (1, 1) is 2, and the equation is

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3.1.1 Velocity
One of the important themes in calculus is the study of motion. To describe the motion of
an object completely, one must specify its speed (how fast it is going) and the direction
in which it is moving. The speed and the direction of motion together comprise what is
called the velocity of the object.

A motion of objects that move along a line is called rectilinear motion. The example of
this motion is shown in following illustration.

The first is for a car that starts at the origin and moves only in the positive direction of the
-axis. In this case increases as increases. The second is for a ball that is thrown
straight up in the positive direction of an -axis from some initial height and then falls
straight down in the negative direction. In this case increases as the ball moves up and
decreases as it moves down.

If a particle in rectilinear motion moves along an -axis so that its position coordinate
function of the elapsed time is

then is called the position function of the particle. The average velocity of the particle
over a time interval , , is defined to be

Consider a particle in rectilinear motion with position function . We define the

instantaneous velocity of the particle at time to be the limit as of its
average velocities over time intervals between and . Thus, we
obtain

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Geometrically, the average velocity between and is the slope of

the secant line through points and on the position
versus time curve, and the instantaneous velocity at time is the slope of the
tangent line to the position versus time curve at the point (see following
figure).

 Example 3.2

1. Given that is the position function of a particle, where is

in meters and is in seconds. Find the average velocities of the particle over the time
intervals
(a) [0, 2]
(b) [2, 3]

2. The position of the particle at time , is . Find the particle’s

instantaneous velocity at time s.

Solution:
1. (a) Applying formula with and , we see that the average velocity:

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2. Applying or formula :

3.1.2 Slopes and Rates of Change

Velocity can be viewed as rate of change—the rate of change of position with respect to
time.

Our next objective is to define precisely what is meant by the “rate of change of with
respect to ” when is a function of . In the case where is a linear function of , say
, the slope is the natural measure of the rate of change of with respect
to .

 Example 3.3

Find the rate of change of with respect to if

(a)
(b)

Solution:
(a) The rate of change of with respect to is , so each 1-unit increase in
produces a 2-unit increase in

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(b)

If , then we define the average rate of change of with respect to over the
interval to be

and we define the instantaneous rate of change of with respect to at to be

Geometrically, the average rate of change of with respect to over the interval
is the slope of the secant line through the points and
(see following figure), and the instantaneous rate of change of with respect to at is
the slope of the tangent line at the point (since it is the limit of the slopes of
the secant lines through P).

If desired, we can let , and the equation of and can be rewritten as

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 Example 3.4

Let if
(a) Find the average rate of change of with respect to over the interval [3, 5].
(b) Find the instantaneous rate of change of with respect to when .

Solution:
(a) Given , and . Thus,

(b) Given and . Thus,

3.2 The Derivative Function

In the last section we showed that if the limit

exists, then it can be interpreted either as the slope of the tangent line to the curve
at or as the instantaneous rate of change of with respect to at
. This limit is so important that it has a special notation:

where is a function with input is and the output is the number that represents
either the slope of the tangent line to at or the instantaneous rate of
change of y with respect to at . To emphasize this function point of view, we
will replace by in above equation and make the following definition.

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This form of derivative is also known as the first principles.

 Example 3.5

Find the derivative of the following by using the first principles

(a) , and use it to find the equation of the tangent line to at .
(b)
(c) √
(d)

Solution:
(a)

Thus, the slope of the tangent line to at is . Since if

, the point-slope form of the tangent line is which we can
rewrite in slope-intercept form as – .

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(b)

(c)

(d)

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3.2.1 Computing Instantaneous Velocity

If is the position function of a particle in rectilinear motion, then the
instantaneous velocity at an arbitrary time is given by

Since the right side of this equation is the derivative of the function (with rather than
as the independent variable), it follows that if is the position function of a particle
in rectilinear motion, then the function

represents the instantaneous velocity of the particle at time . Accordingly, we call the
equation as the instantaneous velocity function or, more simply, the velocity
function of the particle.

 Example 3.6

Recall the equation of . Here is measured in meters and

is measured in seconds. Find the velocity function of the particle.

Solution:

3.3 Introduction of Techniques of Differentiation

The process of finding a derivative is called differentiation. You can think of
differentiation as an operation on functions that associates a function with a function .
When the independent variable is , the differentiation operation is also commonly
denoted by

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or

In the case where there is a dependent variable , the derivative is also

commonly denoted by

or

Noted that and are called differentiation operators since they indicate the
operation of differentiation. The symbol of is called as Leibniz notation.

3.4.1 Derivative of a Constant

Theorem:
The derivative of a constant function is 0; that is, if is any real number, then

 Example 3.7

[ √ ]

3.4.2 Derivative of Power Functions

Theorem:
If is a positive integer, then

 Example 3.8

[√ ]

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3.4.3 Derivative of a Constant Times a Function

Theorem:
If is differentiable at and is any real number, then is also differentiable at and

 Example 3.9

(a)

(b)
[ ]

3.4.4 Derivative of a Sums and Differences

Theorem:
If and are differentiable at , then so are and and

 Example 3.10

(a)

(b)
√
[ ] [ √ ]
√

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 Exercise

1. Find for .
2. At what points, if any, does the graph of have a horizontal
tangent line?
3. Find the area of the triangle formed from the coordinate axes and the tangent line to
the curve at the point (5, 0).

Solution:
1.

2.

3.

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3.4.5 Higher Derivatives

The derivative of a function is itself a function and hence may have a derivative of
its own. If is differentiable, then its derivative is denoted by and is called the
second derivative of . As long as we have differentiability, we can continue the process
of differentiating to obtain third, fourth, fifth, and even higher derivatives of . These
successive derivatives are denoted by

, , , , ,…

If , then successive derivatives can also be denoted by

These are called, in succession, the first derivative, the second derivative, the third
derivative, and so forth. The number of times that is differentiated is called the order of
the derivative. A general th order derivative can be denoted by

and the value of a general nth order derivative at a specific point can be denoted
by

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 Exercise

1. Given . Find the

2. For the following functions, find
(a) , where
(b) , where
(c) | , where
3. Show that satisfies
4. Find and where

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3.5 The Product and Quotient Rules

Theorem of Product Rule:
If and are differentiable at , then so is the product , and

 Example 3.11

1. Find if
2. Find if √
3. Find the derivatives if

Solution:
1. There are two methods that can be used. Either use the product rule or we can
multiply out the factors in and then differentiate.

2. Applying the product rule yields

[√ ] √ √
√ √

3.

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Theorem of Quotient Rule:

If and are both differentiable at and if , then is differentiable at
and

[ ]

 Example 3.12

Find for
(a) (d)

(b) (e)
√
(c)
( )

Solution:

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3.6 Derivatives of Trigonometric Functions

We will assume in this section that the variable in the trigonometric functions sin , cos
, tan , cot , sec , and csc is measured in radians. Some properties of derivatives of
trigonometric function:

Additionally, introducing the trigonometric identities:

 Example 3.13

1. Differentiate the given functions

(a)

(b)

2. Find if

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Solution:
1. (a)

(b)

2.

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3.7 Chain Rule

Theorem:
If is differentiable at and is differentiable at then the composition is
differentiable at . Moreover, if
and
then and

If n is any real number and u = g(x) is differentiable, then

alternatively,

If u be any differentiable function, then

and

 Example 3.16

Differentiate the following functions

(a)
(b) Given and

Solution:
(a) Let and express as . Applying the formula yields

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(b) In this case the chain rule computations take the form

 Exercise

Differentiate the given functions

(a) (e)
(b) (f)
(c) (g)
( )

(d)

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