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Logarithmic Differentiation

Logarithmic differentiation allows you to differentiate functions where it is easier to take the natural logarithm of both sides first. You take the logarithm of both sides, apply differentiation rules to the logarithm, and then multiply both sides by the original function to isolate the derivative term. For example, to find the derivative of y = (x^2 + 1)/(x^2 - 1), you take the logarithm of both sides, differentiate using logarithm rules, and then multiply both sides by y to get the derivative expression dy/dx = y*(2x/(x^2 + 1) - 2x/(x^2 - 1)).

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bhagya Khuntia
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153 views5 pages

Logarithmic Differentiation

Logarithmic differentiation allows you to differentiate functions where it is easier to take the natural logarithm of both sides first. You take the logarithm of both sides, apply differentiation rules to the logarithm, and then multiply both sides by the original function to isolate the derivative term. For example, to find the derivative of y = (x^2 + 1)/(x^2 - 1), you take the logarithm of both sides, differentiate using logarithm rules, and then multiply both sides by y to get the derivative expression dy/dx = y*(2x/(x^2 + 1) - 2x/(x^2 - 1)).

Uploaded by

bhagya Khuntia
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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Logarithmic differentiation

To differentiate y = f (x ), it is often easier to use logarithmic


differentiation :
1. Take the natural logarithm of both sides to get ln y = ln(f (x )).
2. Differentiate with respect to x to get 1 dy = ln(f (x )).
d

y dx dx
dy d d
3. We get =y ln(f (x )) = f (x ) ln(f (x )).
dx dx dx
.
Logarithmic differentiation; Example
q
x 2 +1
x 2 −1 .
4
Find the derivative of y =
I We take the natural logarithm of both sides to get
r
4
x2 + 1
ln y = ln
x2 − 1

I Using the rules of logarithms to expand the R.H.S. we get ln y =


h i
1 x 2 +1 1 2 2
4
ln x −1
2 = 4
ln(x + 1) − ln(x − 1) = 14 ln(x 2 + 1) − 41 ln(x 2 − 1)

I Differentiating both sides with respect to x , we get


1 dy 1 2x 1 2x x x
y dx
= 4 · (x 2 +1) − 4 · (x 2 −1) = 2(x 2 +1) − 2(x 2 −1)
h i
dy
I Multiplying both sides by y , we get dx = y 2(x 2x+1) − 2(x 2x−1)
I Converting y to a function of x , we get
r " #
dy 4 x2 + 1 x x
=
−
dx x 2 − 1 2(x 2 + 1) 2(x 2 − 1)
Summary of Formulas for Logarithms
ln(x )

ln 1 = 0, ln e = 1.
a
ln(ab) = ln a + ln b, ln( ) = ln a − ln b,
b
ln ax = x ln a
lim ln x = ∞, lim ln x = −∞
x →∞ x →0

d 1 d g 0 (x )
ln |x | = , ln |g (x )| =
dx x dx g (x )
Z
1
dx = ln |x | + C
x
Z 0
g (x )
dx = ln |g (x )| + C .
g (x )

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