Differentiation P1 Hold infinity in the palm of your hand. William Blake This picture illustrates one of the more frightening rides at an amusement park To ensure that the ride is absolutely safe, its designers need to know the gradient of the curve at any point. What do we mean by the gradient of a curve? The gradient of a curve To understand what this means, think of a log on a log-flume, as in figure 5.1. If you draw the straight line y= mx + cpassing along the bottom of the log, then this line is a tangent to the curve at the point of contact. The gradient mm of the tangent is the gradient of the curve at the point of contact, Figure 5.1 123‘One method of finding the gradient of a curve is shown for point A in figure 5.2. vU = Differentiation Figure 5.2 ACTIVITY 5.1 Find the gradient at the points B, C and D using the method shown in figure 5.2. (Use a piece of tracing paper to avoid drawing directly on the book!) Repeat the process for each point, using different triangles, and see whether you get the same answers. You probably found that your answers were slightly different each time, because they depended on the accuracy of your drawing and measuring. Clearly you need a more accurate method of finding the gradient at a point. As you will see in this, chapter, a method is available which can be used on many types of curve, and which does not involve any drawing at all. ding the gradient of a curve Figure 5.3 shows the part of the graph y= x? which lies between x=—1 and x=3. What is the value of the gradient at the point P(3, 9)? aradien ~~ 4 chord I joins wo points on the curve, inthis case (0, 0) wm ABR radient S 2,4) C9 seadient 4 124] Figure 5.3You have already seen that drawing the tangent at the point by hand provides only an approximate answer. A different approach is to calculate the gradients of chords to the curve. These will also give only approximate answers for the gradient of the curve, but they will be based entirely on calculation and not depend on your drawing skill. Three chords are marked on figure 5.3. 9-0 3 g-1 Chord (0, 0) to (3,9): gradient= Chord (1, 1) to (3, 9) gradient = 3227 5 Clearly none of these three answers is exact, but which of them is the most accurate? Chord (2, 4) to (3,9): gradient = Of the three chords, the one closest to being a tangent is that joining (2, 4) to (3, 9), the two points that are closest together. ‘You can take this process further by ‘zooming in’ on the point (3, 9) and using points which are much closer to it, as in figure 5.4. PG, 9) C29, 841) chord AP, B28, 784) AQ, 729) Figure 5.4 The x co-ordinate of point A is 2.7, the y co-ordinate 2.7%, of 7.29 (since the point lies on the curve y= x2). Similarly B and C are (2.8, 7.84) and (2.9, 8.41). The gradients of the chords joining each point to (3, 9) are as follows. Chord (2.7, 7.29) to (3, 9): gradient = Chord (2.8, 7.84) to (3, 9): gradient Chord (2.9, 8.41) to (3, 9): gradient These results are getting closer to the gradient of the tangent. What happens if you take points much closer to (3, 9), for example (2.99, 8.9401) and (2.999, 8.994001)? ‘The gradients of the chords joining these to (3, 9) work out to be 5.99 and 5.999 respectively. vu = onins & yo quoypeas oun BuIpUIS 125ACTIVITY 5.2 Take points X,Y, Zon the curve y=x' with x co-ordinates 3.1, 3.01 and 3.001 P1 respectively, and find the gradients of the chords joining each of these points to (3,9) It looks as if the gradients are approaching the value 6, and if so this is the gradient of the tangent at (3, 9). Taking this method to its logical conclusion, you might try to calculate the gradient of the ‘chord’ from (3, 9) to (3, 9), but this is undefined because there is a zero in the denominator. So although you can find the gradient of a chord which is as close as you like to the tangent, it can never be exactly that of the tangent. What you need is a way of making that final step from a chord to a tangent. ‘The concept of a limit enables us to do this, as you will see in the next section. It allows us to confirm that in the limit as point Q tends to point P(3, 9), the chord QP tends to the tangent of the curve at P, and the gradient of QP tends to 6 (see figure 5.5) PG.) Figure 5.5 ‘The idea of a limit is central to calculus, which is sometimes described as the study of limits. Historical note | This method of using chords approaching the tangent at P to calculate the gradient of the tangent was first described clearly by Pierre de Fermat (c. 1608-65). He spent his working life as a civil servant in Toulouse and produced an astonishing amount of original mathematics in his spare time. @ Finding the gradient from first principles Although the work in the previous section was more formal than the method of, drawing a tangent and measuring its gradient, it was still somewhat experimental. ‘The result that the gradient of y= x? at (3, 9) is 6 was a sensible conclusion, rather than a proved fact. In this section the method is formalised and extended. Take the point P(3, 9) and another point Q close to (3, 9) on the curve y= x’. Let the x co-ordinate of Q be 3+ hwhere h is small. Since y= x? at Q, the 126 y co-ordinate of Q will be (3 + h)?AX Figure 5.6 shows Q in a position whe A would put Q to the left of P. c his positive, but negative values of GACH) Figure 5.6 sojdrouyd asay wio4y yuoypess ous Bulpuld G+hP-9 From figure 5.6, the gradient of PQis G+ i 94 6h ha ~ h oh he (+h) i =6+h, For example, when h = 0.001, the gradient of PQ is 6.001, and when h = 0.001, the gradient of PQ is 5.999. The gradient of the tangent at P is between these two values. Similarly the gradient of the tangent would be between 6 ~ hand 6+ h for all small non-zero values of h. For this to be true the gradient of the tangent at (3, 9) must be exactly 6. ACTIVITY 5.3. Using a similar method, find the gradient of the tangent to the curve at @ (4) Wii) (-2, 4) (iii) (4, 16). What do you notice? The gradient function The work so far has involved finding the gradient of the curve y= x at a particular point (3, 9), but this is not the way in which you would normally find the gradient at a point, Rather you would consider the general point, (x, y), and then substitute the value(s) of x (and/or y) corresponding to the point of interest 127vU = Differentiation 128] EXAMPLE 5.1 Find the gradient of the curve y= x° at the general point (x, y) SOLUTION Figure 5.7 Let P have the general value xs its x co-ordinate, so P is the point (x, x*) (since itis on the curve y= x). Let the x co-ordinate of Q be (x+ h) so Qis ((x+h), (x+ #)?). The gradient of the chord PQ is given by QR _(eHhp- PR G@+h) 432+ 3h +P Th 3xth + 3xh? + ht h _ Gx? 4 3xh 4 = eet = 3x24 3xh +h As Q takes values closer to P, ht takes smaller and smaller values and the gradient approaches the value of 3x? which is the gradient of the tangent at P. The gradient of the curve y=. at the point (x, y) is equal to 322. Note I the equation of the curve is written as y= fix, then the gradient function (i.e. the gradient at the general point (x, y)) is written as (x). Using this notation the result above can be written as f\x) = x9 => (x) = 3x2,EXERCISESA 1 Use the method in Example 5.1 to prove that the gradient of the curve y= x? at the point (1, y) is equal to 2x. vu = 2 Use the binomial theorem to expand (x+ h)* and hence find the gradient of the curve y= x4 at the point (x, y). g 3 Copy the table below, enter your answer to question 2, and suggest how the 5 gradient pattern should continue when f(x) = 25, f(x) = x8 and f(x) =x" (where | nis a positive whole number). 3 2 2x 2 32 a 5 * x 4 Prove the result when f(x) = x5. Note The result you should have obtained from question 3 is known as Wallis’s rule and can be used as a formula. © _ How can you use the binomial theorem to prove this general result for integer values of An alternative notation So far hhhas been used to denote the difference between the x co-ordinates of our points P and Q, where Q is close to P. his sometimes replaced by 8x. The Greek letter 8 (delta) is shorthand for ‘a small change in’ and so 5x represents a small change in x and dy a corresponding small change in y. In figure 5.8 the gradient of the chord PQ is 2 In the limit as 6x — 0, 8x and dy both become infinitesimally small and the value by obtained for % approaches the gradient of the tangent at P, 7(+8 y +8) Figure 5.8 him, & is written as 2 Read thie as the limit as 5x tends towards zero’ AAA sing this notation, Wallis’s rule becomes =a yoxta Zens ‘The gradient function, Y or (2) is sometimes called the derivative of y with respect to x, and when you find it you have differentiated y with respect to x. fote There is nothing special about the letters x, y and f Hf, for example, your curve represented time (t) on the horizontal axis and velocity (v on the vertical axis, then the relationship may be referred to as v= gltl, ie. vis a tunaton of and he gratant function given by = ACTIVITY 5.4 Plot the curve with equation y= x° +2, for values of x from ~2 to +2. ‘On the same axes and for the same range of values of x, plot the curves yse-Ly=eandy=e+1. What do you notice about the gradients of this family of curves when x=0? What about when x= 1 or x=—? ACTIVITY 5.5 Differentiate the equation y= x’ + c where c is a constant. How does this result help you to explain your findings in Activity 5.4? 130]Historical note 8 ys fst ved bythe Geman mahematien and pilesopher Gated Lion 646-1710 in 1675. Letne wos a cil prodigy and a staat mathematician. The terms ‘function’ and ‘co-ordinates’ are due to him and, because The notation of his influence, the sign ’~’ is used for equality and ‘x’ for multiplication. In 1684 he published his work on calculus (which deals with the way in which quantities change) in a six-page article in the periodical Acta Eruditorum, Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) worked independently on calculus but Leibniz published his work first. Newton always hesitated to publish his discoveries. Newton used different notation (introducing ‘fluxions’ and ‘moments of fluxions’) and his expressions were thought to be rather vague. Over the years the best aspects of the two approaches have been combined, but at the time the dispute as to who ‘discovered’ calculus first was the subject of many articles and reports, and indeed nearly caused a war between England and Germany. Differentiating by using standard results The method of differentiation from first principles will always give the gradient fanction, but itis rather tedious and, in practice, it is hardly ever used. Its value is, in establishing a formal basis for differentiation rather than as a working tool. Ifyou look at the results of differentiating y= x" for different values of na pattern is immediately apparent, particularly when you include the result that the line xchas constant gradient 1. This can be extended to functions of the type y= kx” for any constant k, to give y IN yoke => De kn, The power can be any real de number and this includes positive and negative integers and fractions, Another important result is that ay yoo=> <0. where cis any constant This follows from the fact that the graph of y= cis a horizontal line with gradient zero (see figure 5.9) syinso4 prepueys Buren Aq Bu 131132 EXAMPLE 5.2 EXAMPLE 5.3 > The line y= has gradient zero and so o : For each of these functions of x, find the gradient function. ti) yaxs (iy 2278 ii) p=11 SOLUTION Wan (iv) £64) = 3x4 <——$oasiestowite act Aw 1) x 3x7 3 Sf(a)= Sums and differences of functions Many of the functions you will meet are sums or differences of simpler ones. For ‘example, the function (3x? + 4°) is the sum of the functions 3x* and 4x?. To differentiate a function such as this you differentiate each part separately and then add the results together. Differentiate y= 3x? + 4° SOLUTION ay de 6x + 12x? Note This may be written in general form as: yatin vats = Satta siaEXAMPLE 5.4 EXERCISE 5B Differentiate f(x) = 2 + De -5) x SOLUTION You cannot differentiate f(x) as it stands, so you need to start by rewriting it. Expanding the brackets: f(x) Differentiate the following functions using the rules yok’ => Be kw and y= f(x) + g(x) => ah) +8). 1y= 2 y=4xe 4 y=x! 5 y=4x!0 & y=7x 9 y=2x3+3x5 Wi ysx41 42 yo $3243x41 4 yahttxtl 18 y=3x2 46x46 31 y=x(4x-1) 32 f(x) =(2x-1)(x+3) 33 y=* 36 f(x) = 39 bo) =(vx) ‘as os}o40x3, 133,5 ; : a 134] Given that y = Vx—- 4, find » » i) ae (ii) the gradient of the curve at the point (4, 13). SOLUTION = 8x2. 4 Rewrite y = Vx-S as y x ‘Now you can differentiate using the rule y = kx" => ¥ = kext! EXAMPLES.6 Figure 5.10 shows the graph of Y= X(x—6) = 8 6x", Find the gradient of the curve at the points A and B where it meets the x axis, Figure 5.10EXAMPLE 5.7 SOLUTION The curve cuts the x axis when y=0, and so at these points e-8=0 a => x=0 (twice) or x= 6, © Differentiating y= x? — 6x? gives é dy 45 3 G30 - 1x : At the point (0, 0), ¥ and at (6, 0), x 6-12 x6=36. At A(0, 0) the gradient of the curve is 0 and at B(6, 0) the gradient of the curve is 36. Note This curve goes through the origin. You cans rom the graph and fom the value ‘i ; ot & thatthe anise tangent to the curve at this point You could aso have deduced this from the fact that x= 0 is a repeated root of the equation x? - 6x? = 0. Find the points on the curve with equation y=.x° + 6x +5 where the value of the gradient is-9. SOLUTION ‘The gradient at any point on the curve is given by Therefore you need to find points at which x ~9 i.e ix 3x24 12x = -9 3x°+12x+9=0 3(? +4x+3) = 0 3(x+ e+ 3) > 0 lorx=-3. When x=-1, y= (61)? + 6(-1)? + 5= 10. When x=-3, y= (-3)? + 6(-3)? +5 =32. Therefore the gradient is -9 at the points (1, 10) and (~3, 32)(see figure 5.11) 135,Differentiation 136| EXERCISE 5C > per hades 4 3 4 3 2 0 = Figure 5.11 1 For each part of this question, dy fa) find (a) find (b) find the gradient of the curve at the given point. (0 y=x?; (0.25, 16) i) y= + a4 1, 0) (it) y= 4a? + 2x5 (1,6) tiv) y= 3x4— 4 — 8x7; (2, 43) wy y=vx +35 (4,14) = 4x4 (9,11 wi y= 4x4, (9, 14) 2 Wi) Sketch the curve ) Write down the co-ordinates of the points where the curve crosses the x axis. Differentiate y= x? — 4. (iv) Find the gradient of the curve at the points where it crosses the x axis. 3 (i) Sketch the curve y= x" — 6x. (i) Differentiate y = x — 6x, i) Show that the point (3, -9) lies on the curve y= x" — 6x and find the gradient of the curve at this point. (iv) Relate your answer to the shape of the curve. 4 (i) Sketch, on the same axes, the graphs with equations ystxtS and ys4-x for3 ) Show that the point (—1, 3) lies on both graphs. Differentiate y= 4 — x? and so find its gradient at (1, 3). (iv) Do you have sufficient evidence to decide whether the line y= 2x+5is a tangent to the curve y=4— x? (vy Is the line joining (24, 0} to (0, 5) a tangent to the curve y= 4— 2°?8. The curve y=x°— 6x" + 11x~ 6 cuts the xaxis at x= 1, x=2and x=3. (i) Sketch the curve. Differentiate y= x° - 6x? + 11x- 6. Show that the tangents to the curve at two of the points at which it cuts the wz xcaxis are parallel, 8 osio40x3, 6 (Sketch the curve y= x24 3x—1 Differentiate y= x? +3x-1. Find the co-ordinates of the point on the curve y= x2 + 3x— 1 at which it is parallel to the line y= Sx- 1. {iv) Is the line y= 5x— 1 a tangent to the curve y=x?+3x— 1? Mi Give reasons for your answer. 7 (i) Sketch, on the same axes, the curves with equations y=82-9 and y=9-2 fort x (iii) Find the gradient of the curve at the point (2, 1). fiv) Write down the gradient of the curve at the point (2, 1). ii) Differentiate y= Explain why your answer is —1 x your answer to part (ii). 16 The sketch shows the curve y (i) Differentiate y (ii) Find the gradient of the curve at the point where it crosses the x axis. 17 The gradient of the curve y = ke! at the point x= 9 is 18. Find the value of k. x=2 18 Find the gradient of the curve y = “=? at the point where x= 4 7