All AP Calculus BC Resources
Example Questions
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
Example Question #2 : Derivatives Of Polar Form
Find the first derivative of the polar function
.
In general, the dervative of a function in polar coordinates can be written as
.
Therefore, we need to find , and then substitute into the derivative formula.
To find , the chain rule,
, is necessary.
We also need to know that
.
Therefore,
.
Substituting into the derivative formula yields
Example Question #441 : Ap Calculus Bc
What is the derivative of ?
In order to find the derivative of a polar equation , we must first find the derivative of with respect to as follows:
We can then swap the given values of and into the equation of the derivative of an expression into polar form:
Using the trigonometric identity , we can deduce that . Swapping this into the denominator, we get:
Example Question #2 : Derivatives Of Parametric, Polar, And Vector Functions
Given that . We define its gradient as :
Let be given by:
What is the gradient of ?
By definition, to find the gradient vector , we will have to find the gradient components. We know that the gradient components are that partial derivatives.
We know that in our case we have :
To see this, fix all other variables and assume that you have only as the only variable.
Now we apply the given defintion , i.e,
with :
this gives us the solution .
Example Question #3 : Derivatives Of Parametric, Polar, And Vector Functions
Let .
We define the gradient of as:
Let .
Find the vector gradient.
We note first that :
Using the Chain Rule where is the only variable here.
Using the Chain Rule where is the only variable here.
Continuing in this fashion we have:
Again using the Chain Rule and assuming that is the variable and all the others are constant.
Now applying the given definition of the gradient we have the required result.
Example Question #1 : Derivatives Of Vectors
Let
What is the derivative of ?
To find the derivative of this vector, all we need to do is to differentiate each component with respect to t.
Use the Power Rule and the Chain Rule when differentiating.
is the derivative of the first component.
of the second component.
is the derivative of the last component . we obtain then:
Example Question #442 : Ap Calculus Bc
In general:
If ,
then
Derivative rules that will be needed here:
- Taking a derivative on a term, or using the power rule, can be done by doing the following:
- When taking derivatives of sums, evaluate with the sum rule which states that the derivative of the sum is the same as the sum of the derivative of each term:
- Special rule when differentiating an exponential function: , where k is a constant.
In this problem,
Put it all together to get
Certified Tutor