Scribd
Upload
142 views3 pages

Calculus Course 3

This document introduces calculus concepts including: - Derivatives measure the instantaneous rate of change of a function with respect to its input variable. - The derivative of a function f(x) is defined as the limit of the difference quotient as the change in x approaches 0. - Rules are provided for calculating the derivatives of basic functions like x^n as well as combinations of functions using addition, multiplication, and composition. - Several examples are worked out to demonstrate calculating the derivatives of simple polynomial functions.

Uploaded by

Abhijit Kar Gupta
Copyright
© Public Domain
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
142 views3 pages

Calculus Course 3

This document introduces calculus concepts including: - Derivatives measure the instantaneous rate of change of a function with respect to its input variable. - The derivative of a function f(x) is defined as the limit of the difference quotient as the change in x approaches 0. - Rules are provided for calculating the derivatives of basic functions like x^n as well as combinations of functions using addition, multiplication, and composition. - Several examples are worked out to demonstrate calculating the derivatives of simple polynomial functions.

Uploaded by

Abhijit Kar Gupta
Copyright
© Public Domain
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

By Dr. Abhijit Kar Gupta: Email: kg.abhi@gmail.

com

Introduction to Calculus

Course-3

Now we know x is a variable which can take any value positive or negative, small or
big, something close to zero or something close to infinity, integer or fraction etc.
We can have various expressions of x , we call it a function of x such as:
f (x) = 3x 2 − 2 x + 5 .
So we see f (x) is dependent on x according to the form of the function. We can call
y = f (x) to be another variable.

More precisely, x is independent variable and y is dependent variable.

Therefore, we can easily understand that when x changes, y also changes. We want to
see how y changes when x is changed only a very little.

Let us look at the following graphical plot of y versus x :

y y increases here

y decreases here

x
(0,0)

If we carefully examine the above graph, we see that the value of y sometimes increases
with the increase of x , sometimes y decrease when x increases and so on. At a certain
value of x , the value of y may increase and at the immediate next point the value of y
may decrease. Therefore, if we want to know how y changes when x changes, it is
essential to find out the changes of y with respect to x at each and every possible values
of x . We can call such changes as ‘instantaneous changes’.

Let us define the above concept mathematically:

Suppose we change x by a small amount, we call it ∆x (‘delta x’).

1
By Dr. Abhijit Kar Gupta: Email: [email protected]

When x → x + ∆x
f ( x) → f ( x + ∆x).

Thus the change in the function is ∆f = f ( x + ∆x) − f ( x) .


In terms of the dependent variable, the change is ∆y .

So to calculate the rate of change f (x) or y we write


∆y ∆f f ( x + ∆x) − f ( x)
= = .
∆x ∆x ∆x

Imagine ∆x is getting smaller and smaller. We get the changes in the function or the
dependent variable for a smaller and smaller interval. When ∆x is extremely small which
means ∆x → 0 we get really instantaneous change!

We write
∆f df
Lim =
∆x →0 ∆x dx

This is called derivative of the function f (x) with respect to x . Alternatively, we write
∆y dy
Lim = when we consider y = f ( x) .
∆x →0 ∆x dx

dy
Calculations of derivatives for various functional relationships of y with x:
dx

For the purpose of calculations we write h = ∆x .

#1. y = x
∆y = ∆f = f ( x + ∆x) − f ( x) = ( x + ∆x) − x = ∆x =h
dy ∆y h
∴ = Lim = Lim =1.
dx ∆x → 0 ∆x h → 0 h

#2. y = x 2
∆y = ( x + h) 2 − x 2 = x 2 + 2 xh + h 2 − x 2 = 2 xh + h 2
dy ∆y 2 xh + h 2
∴ = Lim = Lim = Lim(2 x + h ) = 2 x .
dx ∆x →0 ∆x h→0 h h→0

#3. y = x 3
∆y = ( x + h) 3 − x 3 = x 3 + 3x 2 h + 3xh 2 + h 3 − x 2 = h(3x 2 + 3xh + h 2 )
∆y h(3x 2 + 3xh + h 2 )
= Lim (3 x 2 + 3 xh + h 2 ) = 3x 2 .
dy
∴ = Lim = Lim
dx ∆x →0 ∆x h →0 h h →0

2
By Dr. Abhijit Kar Gupta: Email: [email protected]

dy
In the same way we could also show that when y = x 4 , we have = 4x 3 .
dx
Thus we now have a general formula:
FORMULA No. 1

y = xn
dy
= nx n −1
dx
Where n can be anything 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,…….

dy
When y = C (constant), we can easily see that = 0.
dx
FORMULA No. 2
y=C
dy
=0
dx
Where C is a constant. This can be 2, 4, 10 or 6.5 or
3 ….any kind of number.

Some Rules:
dy df
1. If y = Cf ( x) , =C
dx dx

dy dy1 dy 2
2. If y = y1 + y 2 , = +
dx dx dx

dy dy dy
3. If y = C1 y1 + C 2 y 2 , = C1 1 + C 2 2 .
dx dx dx

Home Work Problems: Find out the derivatives

1. y = 2 x + 5
2. y = 3x 2 − 9 x + 8
6
3. y = 3
5x
1 9
4. y = 5 + 4 x 2 −
2x 10

You might also like