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Historical Approach

The derivative was first developed by Newton and Leibniz in the 17th century to find the slope of tangent lines to curves. Newton used a fluxional method based on infinitely small changes, while Leibniz used a differential calculus based on limits. Today, Leibniz's approach is more widely used. The derivative can be defined as the limit of secant slopes as the secant line approaches the tangent line. It represents the instantaneous rate of change of a function and is analogous to a car's speedometer. The computational approach uses rules of differentiation like the power, product, and chain rules to calculate derivatives of functions.

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Pratish Chaudhary
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12 views2 pages

Historical Approach

The derivative was first developed by Newton and Leibniz in the 17th century to find the slope of tangent lines to curves. Newton used a fluxional method based on infinitely small changes, while Leibniz used a differential calculus based on limits. Today, Leibniz's approach is more widely used. The derivative can be defined as the limit of secant slopes as the secant line approaches the tangent line. It represents the instantaneous rate of change of a function and is analogous to a car's speedometer. The computational approach uses rules of differentiation like the power, product, and chain rules to calculate derivatives of functions.

Uploaded by

Pratish Chaudhary
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Historical Approach

The derivative of a function was first developed by Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm
Leibniz in the 17th century. They were motivated by the problem of finding the slope of
the tangent line to a curve at a given point. The slope of the tangent line represents the
instantaneous rate of change of the function at that point.
Newton and Leibniz independently developed two different approaches to the
derivative. Newton's approach, known as the fluxional method, was based on the idea
of infinitely small changes. Leibniz's approach, known as the differential calculus, was
based on the idea of limits.
Both Newton's and Leibniz's approaches to the derivative are equivalent, but Leibniz's
approach is more widely used today.
Introductory Approach
The introductory approach to the derivative is to define it as the limit of the secant slope
of a curve as the secant line approaches a tangent line. The secant slope of a curve is
the slope of the line that passes through two points on the curve. The tangent slope of a
curve is the slope of the line that touches the curve at a single point.
To calculate the derivative of a function at a given point, we can use the following
formula:
f'(x) = lim_{h->0} (f(x+h) - f(x)) / h
where f(x) is the function and f'(x) is the derivative of f(x) at the point x.
Conceptual Approach
The conceptual approach to the derivative is to think of it as the instantaneous rate of
change of a function. The instantaneous rate of change is the rate of change of the
function at a single point in time.
To understand the conceptual approach to the derivative, let's consider the following
example. Imagine you are driving a car and you want to know how fast you are going at
a particular moment in time. To do this, you could look at the speedometer on your car.
The speedometer measures the instantaneous speed of the car.
The derivative of a function is analogous to the speedometer on a car. The derivative
measures the instantaneous rate of change of a function.
For example, the derivative of the position function of a moving object represents the
object's velocity. The derivative of the velocity function represents the object's
acceleration.
Computational Approach with Examples
The computational approach to the derivative is to use the various rules of
differentiation to calculate the derivative of a function. The rules of differentiation are a
set of formulas that can be used to calculate the derivative of a variety of different types
of functions.
Some of the most common rules of differentiation include:
 The power rule: f'(x) = nx^(n-1)
 The product rule: (f(x)g(x))' = f'(x)g(x) + f(x)g'(x)
 The quotient rule: (f(x)/g(x))' = (f'(x)g(x) - f(x)g'(x)) / [g(x)]^2
 The chain rule: (f(g(x)))' = f'(g(x))g'(x)
These rules can be used to calculate the derivative of any function that can be
expressed as a combination of basic functions.
Examples:
 Example 1: Find the derivative of the function f(x) = x^2.
Using the power rule, we get:
f'(x) = 2x
 Example 2: Find the derivative of the function f(x) = x^3 + 2x^2 + x.
Using the power rule and the sum rule, we get:
f'(x) = 3x^2 + 4x + 1
 Example 3: Find the derivative of the function f(x) = (x^2 + 1)/(x + 1).
Using the quotient rule, we get:
f'(x) = (2x(x + 1) - (x^2 + 1)) / (x + 1)^2 = (x^2 - 1) / (x + 1)^2

Conclusion
The derivative of a function is a fundamental concept in calculus. It has many
applications in science, engineering, and economics. The derivative can be used to find
the slope of a tangent line, the rate of change of a function, and the maximum and
minimum values of a function.

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