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Calc 1 Practice

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11 views

Calc 1 Practice

Uploaded by

ridahseptember
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Lecture 12: §2.

3: Differentiation Formulas
§2.4: The Chain Rule

Goals

ˆ Derive formulas for the derivatives of the six trigonometric functions.

ˆ Derive the Chain Rule for differentiation

ˆ Apply the Chain Rule and our rules for derivatives of trigonometric functions to
compute more complicated derivatives

Additional Exercises (not collected but strongly encouraged)

ˆ §2.3: 1-51 (odd), 61, 63, 67, 69, 73, 79, 87, 88, 90, 98

ˆ §2.4: 1-29 (odd), 31a, 36, 43, 45-59 (odd), 60

Derivatives of Trigonometric Functions: We have learned how to (relatively) easily


take the derivatives of sums, products, and quotients of polynomials. We derived rules for
doing this by using the limit definition of the derivative; we would like to do the same for
trigonometric functions as well. However, we run into a problem when trying to do this for,
say f (x) = sin x:
d sin(x + h) − sin x
sin x = lim .
dx h→0 h
It is not clear how to proceed, since there is no obvious cancellation to make with the h in
the denominator. In order to compute this, we will need the following two identities:

Two Important Trigonometric Limits: We have that


sin θ cos θ − 1
lim = 1 and lim = 0,
θ→0 θ θ→0 θ
where θ is an angle measured in radians.

We will prove the first limit above geometrically; the second limit follows by an quick
application of the first.

1
We argue geometrically to show that
sin θ
lim = 1.
θ→0 θ

Notice: for this argument to work, we must assume we are working in radians.
The derivative rules we develop for trigonometric functions always assume we
are using radians and are not true otherwise!

Now that we have our trigonometric limits, we can compute the derivative of sin x:

2
So, we have that
d
sin x = cos x.
dx
Using a similar argument, we can show that
d
cos x = − sin x.
dx
Example 1. Using the above derivatives of sin x and cos x, compute
d
tan x.
dx

In a similar way, we can compute the derivatives of the remaining trigonometric functions.
Here they are in one place:

Derivatives of Trigonometric Functions: The following are the derivatives of the


six trigonometric functions. We always assume the variables involved are expressed in
radians!
d d
sin x = cos x cos x = − sin x
dx dx
d d
tan x = sec2 x cot x = − csc2 x
dx dx
d d
sec x = sec x tan x csc x = − csc x cot x
dx dx

3
The Chain Rule: We have one remaining derivation technique to introduce which will
allow us to compute the derivative of compositions of functions. Suppose for some functions
f and g we wish to compute (if it exists)

d
f (g(x)).
dx
As always, we look to the limit definition of the derivative:

We now have a powerful new tool at our disposal:

The Chain Rule: Suppose g is differentiable at x, and suppose f is differentiable at


g(x). Then we have
d
f (g(x)) = f ′ (g(x)) · g ′ (x).
dx
We can also write this result in fractional (Leibniz) notation: if y = f (u) and u = g(x)
we have
dy dy du
= .
dx du dx
(This fractional form will be useful once we start our study of implicit differentiation.)

Note that the first term in the result of the chain rule is f ′ (g(x)), and not f ′ (g ′ (x))
(this is a common mistake). To apply the chain rule, we take the derivative of the ‘outside’
function f and compose it with g(x), then multiply the result by g ′ (x).

4
Example 2. Compute the following derivatives:
d
(a) sin(x3 )
dx

d 5
(b) (x + x − 1)7
dx

d
(c) (sec x + tan x)3
dx

d
(d) sin(cos(x2 + 1))
dx

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