3 Differentiation Rules

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 Linear Approximations and
3.10
Differentials

Copyright © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Linear Approximations and Differentials
We have seen that a curve lies very close to its tangent line
near the point of tangency. In fact, by zooming in toward a
point on the graph of a differentiable function, we noticed
that the graph looks more and more like its tangent line.

This observation is the basis for a method of finding

approximate values of functions.

The idea is that it might be easy to calculate a value f(a) of

a function, but difficult (or even impossible) to compute
nearby values of f.

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Linear Approximations and Differentials
So we settle for the easily computed values of the linear
function L whose graph is the tangent line of f at (a, f(a)).
(See Figure 1.)

Figure 1

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Linear Approximations and Differentials
In other words, we use the tangent line at (a, f(a)) as an
approximation to the curve y = f(x) when x is near a. An
equation of this tangent line is

y = f(a) + f(a)(x – a)

and the approximation

is called the linear approximation or tangent line

approximation of f at a.
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Linear Approximations and Differentials
The linear function whose graph is this tangent line, that is,

is called the linearization of f at a.

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Example 1
Find the linearization of the function f(x) = at a = 1
and use it to approximate the numbers and . Are
these approximations overestimates or underestimates?

Solution:
The derivative of f(x) = (x + 3)1/2 is

f(x) = (x + 3)–1/2

and so we have f(1) = 2 and f(1) = .

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Example 1 – Solution cont’d

Putting these values into Equation 2, we see that the

linearization is

L(x) = f(1) + f(1)(x – 1)

= 2 + (x – 1)

The corresponding linear approximation (1) is

(when x is near 1)
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Example 1 – Solution cont’d

In particular, we have

and

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Example 1 – Solution cont’d

The linear approximation is illustrated in Figure 2.

Figure 2

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Example 1 – Solution cont’d

We see that, indeed, the tangent line approximation is a

good approximation to the given function when x is near 1.

We also see that our approximations are overestimates

because the tangent line lies above the curve.

Of course, a calculator could give us approximations for

and , but the linear approximation gives an
approximation over an entire interval.

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Linear Approximations and Differentials
In the following table we compare the estimates from the
linear approximation in Example 1 with the true values.

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Linear Approximations and Differentials
Notice from this table, and also from Figure 2, that the
tangent line approximation gives good estimates when x is
close to 1 but the accuracy of the approximation
deteriorates when x is farther away from 1.

Figure 2

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Linear Approximations and Differentials
The next example shows that by using a graphing
calculator or computer we can determine an interval
throughout which a linear approximation provides a
specified accuracy.

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Example 2
For what values of x is the linear approximation

accurate to within 0.5? What about accuracy to within 0.1?

Solution:
Accuracy to within 0.5 means that the functions should
differ by less than 0.5:

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Example 2 – Solution cont’d

Equivalently, we could write

This says that the linear approximation should lie between

the curves obtained by shifting the curve
upward and downward by an amount 0.5.

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Example 2 – Solution cont’d

Figure 3 shows the tangent line y = (7 + x)/4 intersecting

the upper curve y = + 0.5 at P and Q.

Figure 3

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Example 2 – Solution cont’d

Zooming in and using the cursor, we estimate that the

x-coordinate of P is about –2.66 and the x-coordinate of Q
is about 8.66.

Thus we see from the graph that the approximation

is accurate to within 0.5 when –2.6 < x < 8.6. (We have
rounded to be safe.)

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Example 2 – Solution cont’d

Similarly, from Figure 4 we see that the approximation is

accurate to within 0.1 when –1.1 < x < 3.9.

Figure 4

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Applications to Physics

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Applications to Physics
Linear approximations are often used in physics. In
analyzing the consequences of an equation, a physicist
sometimes needs to simplify a function by replacing it with
its linear approximation.

For instance, in deriving a formula for the period of a

pendulum, physics textbooks obtain the expression
aT = –g sin  for tangential acceleration and then replace
sin  by  with the remark that sin  is very close to  if  is
not too large.

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Applications to Physics
You can verify that the linearization of the function
f(x) = sin x at a = 0 is L(x) = x and so the linear
approximation at 0 is

sin x  x

So, in effect, the derivation of the formula for the period of a

pendulum uses the tangent line approximation for the sine
function.

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Applications to Physics
Another example occurs in the theory of optics, where light
rays that arrive at shallow angles relative to the optical axis
are called paraxial rays.

In paraxial (or Gaussian) optics, both sin  and cos  are

replaced by their linearizations. In other words, the linear
approximations

sin    and cos   1

are used because  is close to 0.

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Differentials

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Differentials
The ideas behind linear approximations are sometimes
formulated in the terminology and notation of differentials.

If y = f(x), where f is a differentiable function, then the

differential dx is an independent variable; that is, dx can
be given the value of any real number.

The differential dy is then defined in terms of dx by the

equation

dy = f(x) dx

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Differentials
So dy is a dependent variable; it depends on the values of
x and dx.

If dx is given a specific value and x is taken to be some

specific number in the domain of f, then the numerical
value of dy is determined.

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Differentials
The geometric meaning of differentials is shown in
Figure 5.

Figure 5

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Differentials
Let P(x, f(x)) and Q(x + x, f(x + x)) be points on the
graph of f and let dx = x. The corresponding change in y is

y = f(x + x) – f(x)

The slope of the tangent line PR is the derivative f(x). Thus

the directed distance from S to R is f(x) dx = dy.

Therefore dy represents the amount that the tangent line

rises or falls (the change in the linearization), whereas y
represents the amount that the curve y = f(x) rises or falls
when x changes by an amount dx.
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Example 3
Compare the values of y and dy if
y = f(x) = x3 + x2 – 2x + 1 and x changes (a) from 2 to 2.05
and (b) from 2 to 2.01.

Solution:
(a) We have
f(2) = 23 + 22 – 2(2) + 1

=9

f(2.05) = (2.05)3 + (2.05)2 – 2(2.05) + 1

= 9.717625
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Example 3 – Solution cont’d

y = f(2.05) – f(2)

= 0.717625

In general,
dy = f(x) dx

= (3x2 + 2x – 2) dx

When x = 2 and dx = x = 0.05, this becomes

dy = [3(2)2 + 2(2) – 2]0.05

= 0.7
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Example 3 – Solution cont’d

(b) f(2.01) = (2.01)3 + (2.01)2 – 2(2.01) + 1

= 9.140701

y = f(2.01) – f(2)

= 0.140701

When dx = x = 0.01,

dy = [3(2)2 + 2(2) – 2]0.01

= 0.14
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Differentials
Our final example illustrates the use of differentials in
estimating the errors that occur because of approximate
measurements.

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Example 4
The radius of a sphere was measured and found to be
21 cm with a possible error in measurement of at most
0.05 cm. What is the maximum error in using this value of
the radius to compute the volume of the sphere?

Solution:
If the radius of the sphere is r, then its volume is V =  r3. If
the error in the measured value of r is denoted by dr = r,
then the corresponding error in the calculated value of V is
V, which can be approximated by the differential

dV = 4 r2 dr
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Example 4 – Solution cont’d

When r = 21 and dr = 0.05, this becomes

dV = 4(21)20.05

 277

The maximum error in the calculated volume is about

277 cm3.

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Differentials
Note:
Although the possible error in Example 4 may appear to be
rather large, a better picture of the error is given by the
relative error, which is computed by dividing the error by
the total volume:

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Differentials
Thus the relative error in the volume is about three times
the relative error in the radius.

In Example 4 the relative error in the radius is

approximately dr/r = 0.05/21  0.0024 and it produces a
relative error of about 0.007 in the volume.

The errors could also be expressed as percentage errors

of 0.24% in the radius and 0.7% in the volume.

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