Calculus 2 : Derivatives

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for Calculus 2

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Example Questions

Example Question #52 : Derivative At A Point

What is the slope of  at ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

We define slope as the first derivative of a given function.

Since we have 

, we can use the Power Rule

 for all  to determine that 

 .

We also have a point  with a -coordinate , so the slope 

.

Example Question #141 : Derivatives

What is the slope of  at ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

We define slope as the first derivative of a given function.

Since we have 

, we can use the Power Rule

 for all  to determine that 

 .

We also have a point  with a -coordinate , so the slope

 .

Example Question #143 : Derivative Review

Find  of .

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

In order to take the derivative, we need to use the power rule and the definition of the derivative of natural log.

Remember that the derivative of natural log is:

Remember that the power rule is:

Now lets apply these rules to this problem.

Now we simply plug in 1.

Example Question #144 : Derivative Review

Find  for 

.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

In order to find , we must first find .

In order to find , we need to remember the product rule and the derivative of natural log.

Product Rule:

 Derivative of natural log:

Now lets apply these rules to our problem.

Example Question #145 : Derivative Review

Find the derivative of the following function at :

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The derivative of the function is:

 

and was found using the following rules:

To finish the problem, plug in zero into the function above. We get an answer of 2. 

Example Question #142 : Derivatives

Find the derivative of the function at :

Possible Answers:

undefined

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The first derivative of the function is

and was found using the following rules:

To finish the problem, plug in x=0 into the first derivative equation:

Example Question #147 : Derivative Review

Find the derivative of the following function at :

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The derivative of the function is

and was found using the following rules:

To finish, plug in the given point into the first derivative function:

Example Question #148 : Derivative Review

What is the derivative of the function  at the point ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Using the product rule which states,

and the definition for the derivative of natural log,

for the function gives you 

.

Substituting  and you get .

Recall that the natural log of  is just , and that leads us to our answer:

Example Question #141 : Derivative Review

Find the derivative of  at the point .

Possible Answers:

Undefined

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Since we can't difrerentiate that problem as it stands, we can rewrite it using properties of logs to make it easier to derive.  can be rewritten as  using the properties of logs. Now this is much easier to derive. Use the product rule and treat  as one part and  as another part. Taking the derivative of the first part and leaving the second part gives us just . Leaving the first part and taking the derivative of the second part is a little trickier. To do that, we first must know the derivative of  which we can figure out via the chain rule.

Using the chain rule, we get 

 as the derivative.

The  we originally had cancels out the  (using the second part of the product rule) so our final derivative becomes 

.

Substituting  in gives us 

.

Recall that the natural log of e is just 1, and the natural log of 1 is 0, which leads us  which gives us our final answer of

Example Question #61 : Derivative At A Point

What is the slope of  at ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

We define slope as the first derivative of a given function.

Since we have , we can use the Power Rule  

for all   to determine that

We also have a point  with a -coordinate , so the slope

.

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