Maisya Farhati, M.Sc.

(maisya.farhati@uii.ac.id)
Fakultas Ekonomi
Universitas Islam Indonesia
Basic Concept of Differentiation

Rules of Differentiation
Basic Concept of Differentiation

Rules of Differentiation
 .
▪ In the early chapter, the slope of a straight line was
defined to be the change in the value of y brought
about by a 1 unit increase in x.
▪ More generally, the slope, or gradient, of a line is taken to be
the change in y divided by the corresponding change in x as we
move between any two points on the line.
Find the slope of the straight line passing through:
a)
b)
c)
Important:
From these examples we see that:
▪ the gradient is positive if the line is uphill,
▪ the gradient is negative if the line is downhill, and
▪ the gradient is zero if the line is horizontal.
▪ A straight line which
passes through a point
on a curve and which
just touches the curve at
this point is called a
tangent.
▪ The slope, or gradient, of
a curve at x = a is then
defined to be that of the
tangent at x = a
▪ Notice how each tangent passes
through exactly one point on the
curve and strikes a glancing blow.
▪ In this case, the slopes of the
tangents increase as we move from
left to right along the curve.
▪ This reflects the fact that the curve is
flat at x = 0 but becomes
progressively steeper further away.
▪ In the case of a
straight line, the
gradient is fixed
throughout its length.
▪ The slope of the graph of a function is called the derivative of
the function.
▪ The slope function is usually referred to as the derived
function.
▪ An alternative notation for the derived function is:

• However, it is important to
realize that does not mean
‘dy divided by dx’.
• It should be thought of as a
single symbol representing the
derivative of y with respect to x.
▪ If we use to identify the square function then it is natural
to use for the derived function.

▪ On the other hand, if we use then f ′(x) is more

appropriate to use as the derived function.
▪ See Section 4.7 Problem 2 in Ian Jacques’ book (p. 244)
▪ It is hard in practice to calculate f ′(a) exactly using graphs.
▪ Fortunately, there is a really simple formula that can be used to
find f ′(a) when f is a power function.
▪ It can be proved that:

▪ or, equivalently,

▪ The process of finding the derived function symbolically (rather

than using graphs) is known as differentiation.
▪ Differentiate
Basic Concept of Differentiation

Rules of Differentiation
For any constant c.
Example:
▪ Differentiate
Example:
▪ Differentiate
Example:
▪ Differentiate