AP Calculus AB : Applications of Derivatives

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for AP Calculus AB

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Example Questions

Example Question #8 : Implicit Differentiation

Find :

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find the derivative of y with respect to x, we must take the differentiate both sides of the equation with respect to x:

The following rules were used:

Note that the chain rule was used everywhere we took the derivative of a function containing y, as well as in the exponential function. The product rule was used because both x and y are both functions of x.

Using algebra to solve, we get

Example Question #1 : Implicit Differentiation

Find , where  is a function of x:

Possible Answers:

None of the other answers

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find the derivative of  with respect to x, we must take the differentiate both sides of the equation with respect to x:

The following derivative rules were used:

Note that the chain rule was used for the derivative of any function containing , whose derivative with respect to x we want to solve for. 

Solving, we get

Example Question #10 : Implicit Differentiation

Given that , find the derivative of the function 

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To solve this using implicit differentiation, we must always treat y as a function of x, and therefore when we differentiate y with respect to x, we denote it as 

Step by step, we get the following:

This resulted from the product rule and chain rule

The next steps are:

Example Question #11 : Implicit Differentiation

Given that , find the derivative of the following function:

 

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find the derivative of the function, we use implicit differentiation, where we always treat y as a function of x, and denoting any derivative of y with respect to x as 

Example Question #11 : Implicit Differentiation

Find  from the following equation:

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find the derivative of y with respect to x, we must take the derivative with respect to x of both sides of the equation:

The derivatives were found using the following rules:

Notice the chain rule was used for every function containing y, because y is a function of x and its whose derivative we are interested in isolating.

Using algebra to solve, our final answer is

Example Question #13 : Implicit Differentiation

Find :

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find  we must use implicit differentiation, which is an application of the chain rule.

Taking  of both sides of the equation, we get

The derivatives were found using the following rules:

Note that for every derivative of a function with y, the additional term  appears; this is because of the chain rule, where y=g(x), so to speak, for the function it appears in.

Solving for , we get

 

Example Question #14 : Implicit Differentiation

Evaluate  at the point (1, 4) for the following equation:

.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Using implicit differentiation, taking the derivative of the given equation yields

Getting all the  's to their own side, we have

Factoring,

And dividing

Plugging in our point, , we have

Example Question #11 : Implicit Differentiation

Determine :

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find  we must use implicit differentiation, which is an application of the chain rule.

Taking the derivative with respect to x of both sides of the equation, we get

The derivatives were found using the following rules:

Note that for every derivative of a function with y, the additional term  appears; this is because of the chain rule, where , so to speak, for the function it appears in.

Using algebra to solve for , we get

 

 

 

Example Question #601 : Derivatives

Find :

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find  we must use implicit differentiation, which is an application of the chain rule.
Taking  of both sides of the equation, we get

which was found using the following rules:

Note that for every derivative of a function with y, the additional term appears; this is because of the chain rule, where , so to speak, for the function it appears in.

Using algebra to solve for , we get

 

Example Question #61 : Applications Of Derivatives

Given that , compute the derivative of the following function

 

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find the derivative of the function, we use implicit differentiation, which is an application of the chain rule. We use this because , and any derivative with respect to  is  (or ).

First, we use the chain rule combined with the product rule in taking the derivative of y

Then we expand in order to isolate the terms with 

Then we factor out a 

 

 

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