All AP Calculus BC Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #11 : Computation Of Derivatives
Find if .
cannot be determined
This function is implicit, because y is not defined directly in terms of only x. We could try to solve for y, but that would be difficult, if not impossible. The easier solution would be to employ implicit differentiation. Our strategy will be to differentiate the left and right sides by x, apply the rules of differentiation (such as Chain and Product Rules), group dy/dx terms, and solve for dy/dx in terms of both x and y.
We will need to apply both the Product Rule and Chain Rule to both the xlny and the terms.
According to the Product Rule, if f(x) and g(x) are functions, then .
And according to the Chain Rule,
Now we will group the dy/dx terms and move everything else to the opposite side.
Then, we can solve for dy/dx.
To remove the compound fraction, we can multiply the top and bottom of the fraction by y.
The (ugly) answer is .
Example Question #12 : Computation Of Derivatives
Find the derivative of .
None of the other answers
This derivative uses the power rule. Keep in mind that the is not a part of the exponent of , and is thus being multiplied to . Since is a constant in front of , we have
.
Example Question #13 : Computation Of Derivatives
If , find .
None of the other answers
In general, the derivative for an exponential function is
.
In our case , , so we have
.
Hence
.
Example Question #14 : Computation Of Derivatives
Find the derivative of the following function:
The derivative of the function is equal to
and was found using the following rules:
, , ,
Example Question #15 : Computation Of Derivatives
Find the derivative of the following function:
The derivative of the function is equal to
and was found using the following rules:
,
Example Question #16 : Computation Of Derivatives
Given h(x), find h'(x).
Given h(x), find h'(x).
We need to derive a function composed of trigonometric terms.
Let's recall the rules
1) Derivative of sine is cosine
2) Derivative of cosine is negative sine
3) Derivative of tangent is secant squared.
Put this all together to get:
Example Question #17 : Computation Of Derivatives
Compute the derivative of the function
.
Although written correctly by convention, the superscript that appears immediately after the trigonometric function may obscure the problem; the function
is equivalent to writing .
Using the fact that
,
we apply the chain rule twice, using the power rule in the first step:
.
(where in the last step, we have returned to the convention of writing the superscript immediately after )
Example Question #18 : Computation Of Derivatives
Compute the derivative of the function
.
Use the chain rule: with the outer function as and the inner function as .
We have then:
(where we have used the chain rule again to compute the derivative of the inner function )
We can simplify this further (into the format of the answer choices) as follows:
(multiplication by a convenient form of 1)
.
Example Question #19 : Computation Of Derivatives
Find the first derivative of the given function.
Find the first derivative of the given function.
So, here we need to derive a function with trigonometric terms. Let's recall the rules
1) The derivative of secant is secant times tangent
2) The derivative of cotangent is negative cosecant squared.
3) The derivative of any constant term is 0
Put all this together to get:
And simplify to get:
Example Question #2 : Derivatives
Suppose and are differentiable functions, and . Calculate the derivative of , at
None of the other answers
None of the other answers
The correct answer is 11.
Taking the derivative of involves the product rule, and the chain rule.
Substituting into both sides of the derivative we get
.
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