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Derivatives · Derivative

Derivatives of Common Functions

Before you start, make sure you know: Powers with rational exponents: Radicals (High School Year 1 (semesters 1 and 2))

A cell phone cools down on the table, a social network gains users, a spring oscillates: all of these phenomena are modeled with exponentials, logarithms, and sines. To know how fast they change, you need to differentiate each type of basic function. With a fixed table of derivatives and the chain rule, you will be able to differentiate almost any function you encounter in high school.

Exponential and logarithmic functions

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Find the derivative of the following composite exponential function: $q(x) = e^{4x^3 - 7x}$

Find the derivative of the following composite exponential function:

$q(x) = e^{4x^3 - 7x}$

Solve
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Determine the derivative of the following composite logarithmic function: $s(x) = \ln(2x^4 + x^2 - 3)$

Determine the derivative of the following composite logarithmic function:

$s(x) = \ln(2x^4 + x^2 - 3)$

Solve
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The number of active users of an emerging social network, in thousands, as a function of time $t$ (in months) is given by the expression $U(t) = 50 e^{0.2t^2 - 0.1t}$.…

The number of active users of an emerging social network, in thousands, as a function of time $t$ (in months) is given by the expression $U(t) = 50 e^{0.2t^2 - 0.1t}$. Calculate the instantaneous rate of growth of the number of users at time $t = 3$ months.

Solve

Trigonometric functions

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Calculate the derivative of the following trigonometric function: $f(x) = 5\sin x - 3\cos x + \tan x$

Calculate the derivative of the following trigonometric function:

$f(x) = 5\sin x - 3\cos x + \tan x$

Solve
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Repeatedly apply the chain rule to find the derivative of the following trigonometric function: $f(x) = \sin^3(2x^2 + \pi)$

Repeatedly apply the chain rule to find the derivative of the following trigonometric function:

$f(x) = \sin^3(2x^2 + \pi)$

Solve
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Show, using the quotient rule for differentiation and the fundamental trigonometric identity ($\sin^2 x + \cos^2 x = 1$), that the derivative of the secant function…

Show, using the quotient rule for differentiation and the fundamental trigonometric identity ($\sin^2 x + \cos^2 x = 1$), that the derivative of the secant function $f(x) = \frac{1}{\cos x}$ is $f'(x) = \tan x \times \sec x$.

Solve

Powers and roots of a function

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Find the derivative of the following polynomial function: $f(x) = 4x^5 - \frac{3}{2}x^4 + 7x^2 - \sqrt{2}x + 5$

Find the derivative of the following polynomial function:

$f(x) = 4x^5 - \frac{3}{2}x^4 + 7x^2 - \sqrt{2}x + 5$

Solve
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Apply the chain rule to differentiate the following power of a function: $p(x) = (3x^2 - 5x + 1)^4$

Apply the chain rule to differentiate the following power of a function:

$p(x) = (3x^2 - 5x + 1)^4$

Solve
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Calculate the derivative of the function involving a radical: $r(x) = \sqrt{5x^2 - 3x + 2}$

Calculate the derivative of the function involving a radical:

$r(x) = \sqrt{5x^2 - 3x + 2}$

Solve

Inverse trigonometric functions

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Calculate the derivative of the following function that combines inverse trigonometric functions with exponentials and polynomials: $h(x) = \arctan(e^x) + \arcsin(2x)$

Calculate the derivative of the following function that combines inverse trigonometric functions with exponentials and polynomials:

$h(x) = \arctan(e^x) + \arcsin(2x)$

Solve

Product and quotient with common functions

The functions in the table almost never appear alone: they are combined with products and quotients. The strategy is the same: identify the outer operation, apply its rule, and use the table on each factor. Sometimes it helps to simplify first using properties of logarithms.

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Apply the product rule to find the derivative of the function: $g(x) = x^3 \ln x$

Apply the product rule to find the derivative of the function:

$g(x) = x^3 \ln x$

Solve
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Find the derivative of the following quotient of functions: $h(x) = \frac{e^x}{x^2+1}$

Find the derivative of the following quotient of functions:

$h(x) = \frac{e^x}{x^2+1}$

Solve
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Use the laws of logarithms to simplify the expression before differentiating, and find the derivative of the function: $g(x) = \ln\left(\sqrt{\frac{x-2}{x+2}}\right)$

Use the laws of logarithms to simplify the expression before differentiating, and find the derivative of the function:

$g(x) = \ln\left(\sqrt{\frac{x-2}{x+2}}\right)$

Solve

Applications: rate of change and tangent line

With the table you can now answer questions about change. If $f(t)$ models a quantity, $f'(t)$ is its instantaneous rate of change; and $f'(a)$ is the slope of the tangent line at $x=a$, whose equation is $y-f(a)=f'(a)(x-a)$.

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The temperature $T$ (in degrees Celsius) of an industrial engine as a function of time $t$ (in minutes) after being switched off follows Newton's law of cooling, given…

The temperature $T$ (in degrees Celsius) of an industrial engine as a function of time $t$ (in minutes) after being switched off follows Newton's law of cooling, given by $T(t) = 25 + 85 e^{-0.05t}$. Calculate and interpret the value of $T'(10)$, that is, the rate at which the temperature decreases after 10 minutes.

Solve
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Find the equation of the tangent line to the curve defined by $f(x) = x e^{-2x} + \cos(\pi x)$ at the point with x-coordinate $x = 0$.

Find the equation of the tangent line to the curve defined by $f(x) = x e^{-2x} + \cos(\pi x)$ at the point with x-coordinate $x = 0$.

Solve
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The total production cost, in pesos, of $q$ units of a high-precision electronic component is modeled by the function $C(q) = \frac{4\,000q^2 + 10\,000}{q+2}$. Calculate…

The total production cost, in pesos, of $q$ units of a high-precision electronic component is modeled by the function $C(q) = \frac{4\,000q^2 + 10\,000}{q+2}$. Calculate the marginal cost $C'(q)$ when exactly $q = 10$ units are produced.

Solve

Successive derivatives and the nth derivative

If you differentiate $f'$ you get the second derivative $f''$; if you differentiate again, $f'''$, and so on. This is useful for concavity and inflection points (where $f''=0$), and also for finding a pattern and writing the nth derivative, which is denoted $f^{(n)}(x)$.

The strategy: differentiate three or four times, write each result as a power (with a negative exponent if there is a quotient), and observe what changes: the sign, the coefficient, and the exponent.

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Find the general expression for the nth derivative (of order $n$) of the function $f(x) = \ln(2x - 1)$.

Find the general expression for the nth derivative (of order $n$) of the function $f(x) = \ln(2x - 1)$.

Solve
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In an epidemiological model, the proportion of the population infected by a virus over time $t$ (in weeks) follows a logistic curve given by…

In an epidemiological model, the proportion of the population infected by a virus over time $t$ (in weeks) follows a logistic curve given by $I(t) = \frac{1}{1 + 49e^{-0.5t}}$. Calculate the rate of change of the infection $I'(t)$ and determine in which week the disease spreads most rapidly (that is, the point of inflection where $I''(t) = 0$).

t I(t) 1 t = ? 0.5 I(t)
Solve

Back to the beginning: cooling, user growth, and the damped spring are all differentiated with the same pieces: exponential, sine or cosine, and the chain rule.

Summary

See all the exercises in this section