All AP Calculus BC Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #21 : Chain Rule And Implicit Differentiation
Find :
, where is a constant.
The derivative of the function is equal to
and was found using the following rules:
, ,
The constant may seem intimidating, but we treat it as another constant!
Example Question #61 : Computation Of Derivatives
Find from the following equation:
, where is a function of x.
To find the derivative of with respect to x, we must differentiate both sides of the equation with respect to x:
The derivatives were found using the following rules:
, , ,
Solving for , we get
Note that the chain rule was used because of the exponential and because is a function of x.
Example Question #21 : Chain Rule And Implicit Differentiation
Find the first derivative of the following function:
The derivative of the function is equal to
and was found using the following rules:
, , ,
Note that the chain rule was used on the secant function as well as the natural logarithm function.
Example Question #62 : Computation Of Derivatives
Find :
To determine , we must take the derivative of both sides of the equation with respect to x:
The derivatives were found using the following rules:
, ,
Rearranging and solving for , we get
Example Question #22 : Chain Rule And Implicit Differentiation
A curve in the xy plane is given implictly by
.
Calculate the slope of the line tangent to the curve at the point .
Differentiate both sides with respect to using the chain rule and the product rule as:
Then solve for as if it were our unknown:
.
Finally, evaluate at the point to obtain the slope through that point:
.
Example Question #161 : Derivatives
Figure. Squircle of "radius" 1
A squircle is a curve in the xy plane that appears like a rounded square, but whose points satisfy the following equation (analogous to the Pythagorean theorem for a circle)
where the constant is the "radius" of the squircle.
Using implicit differentiation, obtain an expression for as a function of both and .
Differentiate both sides of the equation with respect to , using the chain rule on the term:
Then solve for as if it were our unknown:
.
Comparing this to the figure, our answer makes sense, because the slope of the squircle is wherever (as it crosses the axis) and undefined (vertical) wherever (as it crosses the axis). Lastly, we note that in the first quadrant (where and ), the slope of the squircle is negative, which is exactly what we observe in the figure.
Example Question #1 : Derivatives Of Parametrics
Find the derivative of the following set of parametric equations:
We start by taking the derivative of x and y with respect to t, as both of the equations are only in terms of this variable:
The problem asks us to find the derivative of the parametric equations, dy/dx, and we can see from the work below that the dt term is cancelled when we divide dy/dt by dx/dt, leaving us with dy/dx:
So now that we know dx/dt and dy/dt, all we must do to find the derivative of our parametric equations is divide dy/dt by dx/dt:
Example Question #2 : Derivatives Of Parametrics
Solve for if and .
None of the above
We can determine that since the terms will cancel out in the division process.
Since and , we can use the Power Rule
for all to derive
and .
Thus:
.
Example Question #1 : Derivatives Of Parametric, Polar, And Vector Functions
Find the derivative of the following polar equation:
Our first step in finding the derivative dy/dx of the polar equation is to find the derivative of r with respect to . This gives us:
Now that we know dr/d, we can plug this value into the equation for the derivative of an expression in polar form:
Simplifying the equation, we get our final answer for the derivative of r:
Example Question #2 : Derivatives Of Parametric, Polar, And Vector Functions
Find the derivative of the polar function .
The derivative of a polar function is found using the formula
The only unknown piece is . Recall that the derivative of a constant is zero, and that
, so
Substiting this into the derivative formula, we find