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Course: Calculus, all content (2017 edition) > Unit 2
Lesson 7: Using the formal definition of derivative- The derivative of x² at x=3 using the formal definition
- The derivative of x² at any point using the formal definition
- Limit expression for the derivative of a linear function
- Limit expression for the derivative of cos(x) at a minimum point
- Limit expression for the derivative of function (graphical)
- Tangent lines and rates of change
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Tangent lines and rates of change
How tangent lines are a limit of secant lines, and where the derivative and rate of change fit into all this.
Introduction
The position of a car driving down the street, the value of currency adjusted for inflation, the number of bacteria in a culture, and the AC voltage of an electric signal are all examples of quantities that change with time. In this section, we will study the rate of change of a quantity and how is it related geometrically to secant and tangent lines.
Secant and tangent lines
If two distinct points and lie on the curve , the slope of the secant line connecting the two points is
If we let the point approach , then will approach along the graph . The slope of the secant line through points and will gradually approach the slope of the tangent line through as approaches . In the limit, the previous equation becomes
If we let , then and as . We can rewrite the limit as
When the limit exists, its value is the slope of the tangent line to the graph of at the point .
Example 1
Find the slope of the tangent line to the graph of the function at the point .
Solution
Since , using the slope of the tangent line formula
we get
Thus, the slope of the tangent line is . Recall from algebra that the point-slope form of the equation of the tangent line is
The point-slope formula gives us the equation
which we can rewrite as
Finding the slope at any point
Next we are interested in finding a formula for the slope of the tangent line at any point on the graph of . Such a formula would be the same formula that we are using except we replace the constant by the variable . This yields
We denote this formula by
where is read " prime of ." The next example illustrates its usefulness.
Example 2
If , find and use the result to find the slopes of the tangent lines at and .
Solution
Since
then
To find the slope, we substitute and into the result . We get
and
Thus, slopes of the tangent lines at and are and , respectively.
Example 3
Find the slope of the tangent line to the graph of at the point .
Solution
Using the slope of the tangent line formula
and substituting gives us
Substituting yields
Thus, the slope of the tangent line at for the graph of is . To find the equation of the tangent line, we use the point-slope formula,
where . The equation of the tangent line is
Average speed
The primary concept of differential is calculating the rate of change of one quantity with respect to another. For example, speed is defined as the rate of change of the distance traveled with respect to time. If a car travels miles in hours, his speed is
This speed is called the average speed or the average rate of change of distance with respect to time. Of course, a car that travels miles at an average rate of miles per hour for hours does not necessarily do so at constant speed. It may have slowed down or sped up during the hour period.
However, if the car hits a tree, it would not be its average speed that determines the resulting damage but its speed at the instant of the collision. So here we have two distinct kinds of speeds, average speed and instantaneous speed.
The average speed of an object is defined as the object’s displacement divided by the time interval during which the displacement occurs:
The average speed is also the expression for the slope of a secant line connecting the two points. Figure 1 shows the through the points and on the .
Thus we conclude that the average speed of an object between time and is represented geometrically by the slope of the secant line connecting the two points and . If we choose close to , then the average speed will closely approximate the instantaneous speed at time .
Rates of change
The average rate of change of an arbitrary function on an interval is represented geometrically by the slope of the secant line to the graph of . The instantaneous rate of change of at a particular point is represented by the slope of the tangent line to the graph of at that point. Let's consider each case in more detail.
Average rate of change
The average rate of change of the function over the interval is
Figure 2 shows the through the points and on the . The slope of the secant line is the average rate of change .
Instantaneous rate of change
The instantaneous rate of change of the function at the point is
Figure 3 shows through the point on the . The slope of the tangent line is the instantaneous rate of change .
Example 4
Suppose that .
(a) Find the average rate of change of with respect to over the interval .
(b) Find the instantaneous rate of change of with respect to at the point .
Solution
(a) Applying the formula for average rate of change with and and yields
This means the average rate of change over the interval is 2 units of increase in for each unit of increase in .
(b) From Example 2 above, we found that , so
This means that the instantaneous rate of change is negative. That is, is decreasing at . It is decreasing at a rate of units in for each unit of increase in .
Want to join the conversation?
- What is the purpose of the function that appears at the very end of example 2? f(x)= 7 | x=1, f(x-1)+5 | x>1
What is this related to?(44 votes) - Do I understand correctly that the growth "h" is at the end of reduction of limit omited because its value is so small it has practically no effect on value of slope?(6 votes)
- Yes, because technically speaking we write "as the limit of h approaches zero" which means h keeps getting smaller and smaller until it is negligible.(12 votes)
- can someone explain to the math for substituting y=1/x in Example 3?
for some reason i cant see what happens in step one and two(4 votes) - How did we find the function at the end of example 2? f(x)=7 and f(x)=f(x-1)+5?(5 votes)
- It seems to be an orphan that was not removed before the lesson was posted. It doesn't relate to the previous example and is not related to the next example.(4 votes)
- In the example 1, I have not idea how do they get h^3+6h^2+12h+8 from f(2+h)−f(2), it is really confuse me. Can anyone explain?(5 votes)
- They're simply evaluating f(x) for
x = 2 + h
.(2 + h)^3
is equal toh^3 + 6*h^2 + 12*h + 8
.(4 votes)
- In figure 1, it doesn't make a lot of sense using a position vs time graph if you're talking about speed and that specific graph wasn't really a good choice since its slope can be negative and speed cannot be negative. You should use a displacement vs time graph instead or it's a bit confusing.(5 votes)
- I agree with Juan. I think that rather than using y to represent displacement (as it does in figure 1), a monotonically increasing function should be used to represent distance, since after all, we are looking at the rate of change in distance with respect to time.(1 vote)
- On example 3, when taking the derivative of 1/x,
at the third step while using the formula - "h" is somehow transferred from the lower denominator to the denominator above it:
x-(x+h)/x(x+h)/h --> x-(x+h)/xh(x+h)
Which algebric rule relates to that? I couldn't figure this out.(3 votes)- This is a complex fraction simplified. ((x - (x-h)) / x(x+h)) / h is the same thing as (x - (x-h)) / x(x+h)) * 1/h, in other words a/b/c = a/b * 1/c = a/bc(3 votes)
- In example 3, what if x is given but we'll have to find 'm' and 'c' with a given function? I'm confused(3 votes)
- the slope can be found out between any 2 points on a straight line. now substitute a variable point on the line in slopes equation . you get your whole equation of line(3 votes)
- In Example 4, after the first part is over, the answer found is 2. How is it equated to "2x" at the beginning of the solution of the second part?(2 votes)
- The average rate of change is the slope of the secant line between two points on a graph. The secant line in the example is written in the form where the change in y is the numerator and the change in x is the denominator. We find that between the points (0, f(0)) and (2, f(2), we "rise" 2 units in the y direction for every unit we "run" in the x direction. 2 is simply the scalar multiple of x that the line must take to pass through both points on the graph of f(x).(3 votes)
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the limit as h approaches 0 form over the limit as x approaches a form.
(2 votes)- The limit as h approaches 0 form is known as the formal definition of the derivative, and using it results in finding the derivative function, f'(x). The derivative function allows you to find the slope of the tangent line at any point of f(x). The limit as x approaches a form, or alternate definition of the derivative, is used to find the derivative at a specific point a, or f'(a). This form is more useful when you only need to the derivative at one specific point because it is usually less complex to evaluate than formal definition.(2 votes)