Differentiation-A General Formula |
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MathsDirect |
| The most common type of expression that you will be asked to differentiate, is of the form |
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e.g. |
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| where a & n are constants | ||||
| i.e. You multiply by the power and then reduce the power by one | |||||
| Below are some very simple examples | |||||
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| There are 2 special cases for this rule: | ||||||
| If the power of x is 1, then you are just left with the number in front of it. | ||||||
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| If you have a number, on it's own, this vanishes when you differentiate | ||||||
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| The power of x does not have to be positive integer | ||||||
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| You may need to re-arrange your expression, before you differentiate. | ||||||
e.g.
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| First re-arrange |
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| Then differentiate |
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| Re-arrange |
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Below are a few more examples of this basic formula
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| Go To Next Page | Return to Differentiation Tutorials Contents | ||||||
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