Definition of the derivative

The derivative is the answer to the single most important question in

Calculus 1, which is “How do we find the slope of a function at a particular
point?”

We already know, from Algebra, how to find the slope of a straight line.
But in Calculus, we want to figure out how to find the slope of a function,
even when it’s curved.

To find that slope, we 1) calculate the derivative of the function in general,

and then we 2) evaluate the derivative at the point we’re interested in.

To better understand the idea of the derivative in general, we want to

starting by thinking about the difference between a tangent line and a
secant line.

Secant and tangent lines

A tangent line is a line that just barely touches the edge of a graph,
intersecting it at exactly one specific point. The line doesn’t cross the
graph, it skims along the graph and stays along the same side of the
graph.

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A secant line, on the other hand, is a line that runs right through the graph,
crossing it at a point.

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In both graphs here, we’re showing the same curve. Let’s call it the
function f (x). Theoretically, we could use the secant line to approximate the
rate of change of the curve between x = 0 and x ≈ 2.5. Those are two of the
points where the secant line intersects f (x).

That would give us an idea about the average rate of change of the
function in that interval, [0,2.5]. But as we can see from the graph, the slope
of f (x) is changing constantly throughout that interval. So, if we’re actually
interested in the slope of the function at exactly x = 1.5, for example, the
average rate of change over [0,2.5] would give us somewhat of an
estimate, but it wouldn’t give us an exact rate of change at x = 1.5.

On the other hand, if we use the tangent line instead, we can see that it
intersects the graph at one single point, about x ≈ 1.5. So if we use the
slope of the tangent instead of the slope of the secant line, we could get
the instantaneous rate of change of the function at that exact point.

That’s what the derivative allows us to do. Instead of using the secant line
to settle for an average rate of change over an interval, it lets us use the
tangent line to find the instantaneous (exact) rate of change at a specific
point.

Building the derivative

We’ve said that slope of the secant line is the average rate of change over
the interval between the points where the secant line intersects the graph,
and that the slope of the tangent line instead indicates an instantaneous
rate of change at the single point where it intersects the graph.

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To express this mathematically, we start with a point (c, f (c)) on a graph,
and then move a certain distance Δx to the right of that point, and call that
new point (c + Δx, f (c + Δx)).

Connecting those points together gives us a secant line. Remember that

the slope of any line is given by
y2 − y1
m=
x2 − x1

and if we plug the values from our two points (c, f (c)) and (c + Δx, f (c + Δx))
into this slope equation, we get

f (c + Δx) − f (c)
m=
(c + Δx) − c

f (c + Δx) − f (c)
m=
c + Δx − c

f (c + Δx) − f (c)
m=
Δx

This is the slope of any generic secant line that intersects the curve at two
points (c, f (c)) and (c + Δx, f (c + Δx)).

What we want to do now is turn this secant line into a tangent line. The
way we do it is by moving the two intersection points closer and closer
and closer together. As we move the two points closer to each other, the
secant line will start to look more and more like a tangent line.

Eventually, if we move the points so close together that we reduce the

distance between them to 0, then the secant line will literally become the

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tangent line. Mathematically, this means that we’re reducing the value of
Δx to 0, since Δx represents the horizontal distance between the points.

Therefore, we can say that the definition of the derivative is

f (c + Δx) − f (c)
f′(x) = lim
Δx→0 Δx

We can now use this formula to find the derivative of any function at a
particular point.

Calculating the derivative

When it comes to actually applying the definition to calculate the

derivative of a function at a particular point c, we’ll

1. Substitute x + Δx for every x in the original function, then plug this

result into the definition for f (c + Δx).

2. Plug the original function f (x) into the definition for f (c).

That fills out the definition of the derivative formula. From there, we’ll
simplify the difference quotient, which is the fraction that makes up the
definition of the derivative, and then evaluate the limit.

Example

Use the definition to find the derivative.

f (x) = x 2 − 5x + 6

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After replacing x with (x + Δx) in f (x),

f (x + Δx) = (x + Δx)2 − 5(x + Δx) + 6

we’ll substitute for f (c + Δx).

(x + Δx)2 − 5(x + Δx) + 6 − f (c)

f′(x) = lim
Δx→0 Δx

Then plug f (x) into the definition for f (c).

(x + Δx)2 − 5(x + Δx) + 6 − (x 2 − 5x + 6)

f′(x) = lim
Δx→0 Δx

x 2 + 2xΔx + Δx 2 − 5x − 5Δx + 6 − x 2 + 5x − 6
f′(x) = lim
Δx→0 Δx

Collect like terms,

2xΔx + Δx 2 − 5x − 5Δx + 6 + 5x − 6
f′(x) = lim
Δx→0 Δx

2xΔx + Δx 2 − 5Δx + 6 − 6
f′(x) = lim
Δx→0 Δx

Δx 2 + 2xΔx − 5Δx
f′(x) = lim
Δx→0 Δx

then factor Δx out of the numerator and cancel out that common factor
from the numerator and denominator.

Δx(Δx + 2x − 5)
f′(x) = lim
Δx→0 Δx

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 f′(x) = lim Δx + 2x − 5
Δx→0

Now we evaluate the limit using substitution, which means we’ll substitute
Δx = 0.

f′(x) = 0 + 2x − 5

f′(x) = 2x − 5

The answer we just got from this example is the derivative of the original
function f (x) = x 2 − 5x + 6.

The amazing thing is that, once we have the derivative, we can find the
slope of the function at any point we’d like!

For instance, if we want to know the slope of the function at x = 1, we plug

x = 1 into the derivative.

f′(1) = 2(1) − 5

f′(1) = 2 − 5

f′(1) = − 3

Then we can say that the slope of the function at x = 1 is −3.

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