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Madison Kirby
AP Calculus
Mrs. Tallman
9 March 2015
Derivatives, Integrals, and Graphs
Believe it or not, calculus is everywhere. Math is everywhere in life and can solve an
infinite amount of problems. However, to solve these problems certain topics must be understood.
One of these major concepts is that dealing with derivatives and integrals.
To begin, the derivative of a function is the instantaneous rate of change at any point of a
function. What this means is that at any point anywhere on a graph, the derivative is the slope of
dy
. To illustrate this, see Figure 1 below
dx
where the function is f(x)=x2 and the derivative is being found at point (x, f(x)).
f(x)=x2
Tangent line
(x, f(x))
y
x
, which is the
change in y, or f(x), divided by the change in x. Two points must be found in order to properly
y
, or
x
f (x )1f ( x )2
. The first point is (x, f(x)),
x 1x2
since this is the specific point being dealt with, and the second point is (x+h, f(x+h)). The h in the
second point is the increment between the first and second values being used, and it is important
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to note that this increment is infinitely small, basically zero, in order to have as close to a specific
answer as possible for the derivative. Now, these points are plugged into the slope formula shown
below in Figure 2.
dy f (x)1f (x )2
=
dx
x 1x 2
f ( x +h) f ( x)
x 2 +2 hx+ h2x 2 2 hx+ h2
2 x +h
( x +h )(x)
h
h
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if someone were to ask, Can you find the integral of x2? it could easily be done with that
equation. Figure 3 shows all the steps for this problem.
f ( x ) dx x 2 dx
1 n+1 1 3
x x + C
n+1
3
f ( x ) dx
, and
f(x) is the indefinite integral of f(x). With all the numbers, letters, equations, and countless xs,
one may forget that math is everywhere, and that includes derivatives and integrals. In your
everyday life these calculus concepts exist, to the dismay of some and excitement of others. Lets
say there is a dog standing at the end of the hall that just realized its owner is holding a bag of
treats. The dog, now full of excitement and anticipation, sprints in the owners direction. The
dogs displacement is represented by the equation f(x)=x2+2x, shown in Figure 4. F(x), or y, is the
displacement in meters and x is the amount of time in seconds that has passed since the dog began
moving towards his treats. From this, the velocity of the dog can be found by solving the
dy
dx
is the velocity of
the dog at any given time and x is still the amount of time that has passed since the dog first
moved. The unit for velocity in this case is meters per second because the derivative is the change
in y, meters, over the change in x, seconds, or meters/seconds. This velocity is portrayed in
Figure 4.
Additionally, the derivative of velocity is acceleration is essentially just the second
derivative of displacement. Using the same methods previously explained, the derivative of
velocity is calculated to be f(x)=2. Since the velocity is consistently increasing, this means the
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dog is accelerating. The unit for the speed that the dog is accelerating down the hall is found to be
dy
, the second derivative of
d2 x
displacement. Since the y is in meters and x is in seconds, it is meters over seconds squared.
Velocity
Acceleration
Displacement
x dx= 2 x 2
area would be length, represented by y=1 with units of just inches. As seen with the dog, the area
of the square integrated would result in a higher exponent for volume and a lower exponent for
length. Figure 5 displays this relationship.
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Volume
Area
Length
min
0
0
-5
-3
p.i.
f '(x)=
x
max
-5
-1
p.i.
-3
-1
0
3
zero
1
x 5 with
f(1)=3 are x=-4, -1, and 2. In the solution to the right of Figure 6, f(x) shows the points of
inflection. The second derivative, f(x), is the concavity of the graph. If f(x) is increasing, then
the concavity is concave up, or opening upwards. If f(x) is decreasing, then the concavity is
concave down, or opening downwards. For the second derivative, to find the points of inflection
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you look at where the direction of concavity changes, at the critical points. So, for this example
the points of inflection are at x=-4, -1, and 2. However, the point at 2 is actually a zero because it
is a cusp. Where the graph intersects the x-axis is what helps find the maximums and minimums.
To determine whether these are maximums or minimums, follow the solution to the right of
Figure 6. Here, f(x) shows whether the graph is increasing or decreasing. If the derivative is
above the x-axis, then the graph is increasing. If the derivative is below the x-axis, then the graph
is decreasing. Where the zeros are on f(x) are where the maximums and minimums are located
on the original function. So, here the relative maximums are at -3 and 4, and the relative
minimum is at 1. By relative, this means that within this interval those are the maximums and
minimums but are not necessarily the maximums and minimums outside of the interval as well.
Combining all of this information, the original function can be drawn. It is shown in Figure 7.
f (t ) d t
'
f ' ( t ) dt
1
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which means the result is the integral from 1 to 3 of f(t). Also, to solve for the integral f(3)-f(1)
must be found, which is 2.5. This means that g(3)=2.5 unit. For g(3), integrating the function
comes out to be g(x)=f(x), so g(x)=f(x) and g(3)=f(3) which equals 1 unit. Lastly, for g(x),
the result is the slope of f(x) which is shown to be -1, which means that g(3)=f(3)=-1 unit.
Lets say that for some reason an integral was switched from a to b and became from b to
a. When the limits of integration are reversed, the answer is the same, except with an opposite
f ( x ) dx= f ( x ) dx
b
since it is going from right to left on the interval instead of left to right, the result is opposite.
Through the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, which will be thoroughly explained shortly, the
result is shown as well. For example, if dealing with the function f(x)=x2 in the interval [0, 5], the
formula would be
0] would result in
1 3 1 3
5 0 =41.67 un2, but the inverse of this where the interval is [5,
3
3
1 3 1 3
0 5 = -41.67 un2.
3
3
The Fundamental Theorem of Calculus (FTC), the Mean Value Theorem (MVT), and
Intermediate Value Theorem (IVT) are also related to this calculus. The first form of the
Fundamental Theorem of Calculus brings us back to the definite integrals and says that if there is
a function that can be integrated between a and b, it is the integral of the function at point b
f ( x ) dx=g ( b ) g ( a )
. For
example, if you were working with the function f(x)=x2 within the interval of [0, 2], to find the
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2
x 2 dx
x 2 dx 13 b3 13 a3 31 23 13 0 3 2.67 units2
0
f ( t ) dt
when g(x) = f(x). This can be used to graph g(x) if an integral from a to x is given.
Basically, the derivative of the integral is equal to the original function. For example, if the
G(x)
question is
functions f and g are differentiable for all real numbers, g is strictly increasing, and function h is
given by h(x) = f(g(x)) 6, and the work to solve this problem is shown in Figure 9 where the
result is w(3)=-1.
Table 1
Select values of x for f(x), f(x), g(x), and g(x)
x
f(x)
f(x)
g(x)
g(x)
1
3
4
2
5
2
9
2
3
1
3
10
-4
4
2
4
-1
3
6
7
g (x )
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The Mean Value Theorem says that if the function f(x) is differentiable and continuous on
the open interval from a to b, them a number, c, between a and b must exist so that f(c) is the
mean of the derivatives found in the interval [a, b] and is represented by f(c)=
f ( b )f ( a)
.
ba
This means that if there was a line connecting a and b, that line would have a slope, and that
some x value, which would be c, in that interval there would have the same slope as this line. So,
the connecting line would be parallel to the line tangent to x=c in the interval [a, b]. Figure 10
shows the MVT.
b
Slope
Tangent
a
h' ( c )=
f ( g ( 3 ) )f ( g (1 ) ) f ( 4 )f ( 2 ) 19
h ' ( c )
31
2
2
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such that f(c)=y. If given the equation f(x)=5x+2 and the interval [1, 3], this means that at every
point between f(1) and f(3), or 7 and 17, there is a value for y that exists. Looking back at Table 1,
explain why there must be a value, r, for 1< r < 3 so that h(r) = -5. To solve this problem the IVT
is used and the solution is shown in Figure 12.
h ( 1 )=f ( g ( 1 ) ) 6 f ( 2 )6 96 h ( 1 )=3
h ( 3 )=f ( g ( 3 ) )6 f ( 4 )616 h ( 3 )=7 Figure 12. IVT Example Solution
Figure 12 shows that through the Intermediate Value Theorem, there must be an r for the
interval of 1 < r < 3 such that h(r)=-5 and the solution is from 3 to -7.
Continuing with these values, say that you were asked to solve the following problem, if
G-1 is the inverse of G write an equation for the line tangent to the graph of y = G-1(x) at x=2.
First, G(2) must be solved, which results in the (x, y) coordinates of (2, 1). Next, the inverse is
taken to make the coordinates correspond with G-1, so now they are (1, 2). Now the x coordinate
from G-1 is used to find slope, so G(1)=5. The reciprocal and opposite sign is taken from G(1),
final answer is y=
1
5
1
. These can now be substituted into an equation for a line, and the
5
(x-2)+1.
Also, if h(x) = x b(x), where b(x) = f-1(x), use Table 1 to find h(3). To solve this, the
product rule for the derivatives is used to find the derivative of h(x), which results in h(x)=b(x)
equal to f-1(x)+
1
, and using this h(x) is found to be
f '( y)
3
. The question asks to find h(3), so now this values is plugged in and
f '( y )
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Although Calculus has many more major topics, the derivative and the integral are still
very important. On the surface they may seem simple since they are essentially just the opposite
of each other, but once you begin to dig deeper and deeper it becomes clear that there is no end to
math and derivatives and integrals have countless applications from a dogs speed to the area of a
square, or determining functions from one graph, or even the application of the multiple theorems
related to this topic. Needless to say, math is infinite.