AP Calculus AB : Applications of Derivatives

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for AP Calculus AB

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Example Questions

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Example Question #28 : 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

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.

Using algebra to solve for , we get

.

 

 

Example Question #29 : Implicit Differentiation

Use implicit differentiation to calculate the equation of the line tangent to the equation  at the point (2,1).

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Differentiate both sides of the equation: 

Simplify: 

Use implicit differentiation to differentiate the y term: 

Subtract 4x from both sides of the equation: 

Divide both sides of the equation by 2y: 

Plug in the appropriate values for x and y to find the slope of the tangent line: 

Use slope-intercept form to solve for the equation of the tangent line: 

Plug in the appropriate values of x and y into the equation, to find the equation of the tangent line: 

Solve for b: 

Solution:

Example Question #81 : Applications Of Derivatives

Find , where  is a function of x.

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

and the derivatives were found using the following rules:


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

Using algebra to solve, we get

 

Example Question #31 : Implicit Differentiation

Find the normal line of the curve  at the point 

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Use implicit differentiation to calculate the slope of the tangent line:

Simplify:

Subtract x from both sides of the equation:

Divide both sides of the equation by 2y:

Plug in the x and y values from the point into the equation, to calculate the slope of the tangent line: 

Take the negative reciprocal of the slope of the tangent line to calculate the slope of the normal line: 

Plug the slope of the normal line into point slope form: 

Add  to both sides to isolate y: 

Simplify the equation: 

Simplify further: 

Solution: 

Example Question #21 : Calculus I — Derivatives

Find  if the function  is given by

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find the derivative at , we first take the derivative of . By the derivative rule for logarithms,

Plugging in , we get

Example Question #22 : Calculus I — Derivatives

Find the derivative of the following function at the point .

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Use the power rule on each term of the polynomial to get the derivative,

Now we plug in

Example Question #23 : Calculus I — Derivatives

Let . What is ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

We need to find the first derivative of f(x). This will require us to apply both the Product and Chain Rules. When we apply the Product Rule, we obtain:

In order to find the derivative of , we will need to employ the Chain Rule.

 

 We can factor out a 2x to make this a little nicer to look at.

Now we must evaluate the derivative when x = .

The answer is .

 

 

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