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Functions and Models

 Class 5
Derivatives

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Derivatives and Rates of Change

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 Derivatives and Rates of Change

The problem of finding the tangent line to a curve and the

problem of finding the velocity of an object both involve
finding the same type of limit.

This special type of limit is called a derivative and we will

see that it can be interpreted as a rate of change in any of
the natural or social sciences or engineering.

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The Tangent Problem

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The Tangent Problems
The word tangent is derived from the Latin word
tangens, which means “touching.”

Thus a tangent to a curve is a line that touches the

curve.

In other words, a tangent line should have the same

direction as the curve at the point of contact.

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The Tangent Problems

For a circle we could simply follow Euclid and say

that a tangent is a line that intersects the circle
once and only once, as in Figure 1(a).

Figure 1(a)

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The Tangent Problems

Figure 1(b) shows two lines l and t passing through

a point
P on a curve C.

The line l intersects

C only once, but it Figure 1(b)

certainly does not

look like what we
think of as a tangent. 8
Example 1
Find an equation of the tangent line to the parabola
y = x2 at the point P(1, 1).

Solution:
We will be able to find an equation of the tangent
line t as soon as we know its slope m.

The difficulty is that we know only one point, P, on t,

whereas we need two points to compute the slope.
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Example 1 – Solution
cont’
d
But observe that we can compute an approximation
to m by
choosing a nearby point Q(x, x2) on the parabola
(as in Figure 2) and computing the slope mPQ of the
secant line PQ. [A secant line, from the Latin
word secans, meaning cutting, is a line that cuts
(intersects) a curve more than once.]

Figure 2 10
Example 1 – Solution
cont’
d
We choose x  1 so that Q  P. Then

For instance, for the point Q(1.5, 2.25) we have

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Example 1 – Solution
cont’
d
The tables in the margin show the values of mPQ for
several values of x close to 1.

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Example 1 – Solution
cont’
This suggests that the slope of the tangent line t d
should be
m = 2.

We say that the slope of the tangent line is the limit

of the slopes of the secant lines, and we express
this symbolically by writing

and

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Assuming that the slope of the tangent line is
Example 1 – Solution
cont’
Figure 3 illustrates the limiting process that occursd
in this example.

Q approaches P from the right

Figure 3

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Example 1 – Solution
cont’
d

Q approaches P from the left

Figure 3

As Q approaches P along the parabola, the

corresponding secant lines rotate about P and 15
The Velocity Problem

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Example 3
Suppose that a ball is dropped from the upper
observation deck of the CN Tower in Toronto, 450m
above the ground. Find the velocity of the ball after
5 seconds.

Solution:
Through experiments carried out four centuries ago,
Galileo discovered that the distance fallen by any
freely falling body is proportional to the square of
the time it has been falling. (This model for free fall17
Example 3 – Solution
cont’
If the distance fallen after t seconds is denoted byds
(t) and measured in meters, then Galileo’s law is
expressed by the equation

s(t) = 4.9t 2

The difficulty in finding the velocity after 5 seconds

is that we are dealing with a single instant of time (t
= 5), so no time interval is involved.
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Example 3 – Solution
cont’
d
However, we can approximate the desired quantity
by computing the average velocity over the brief
time interval of a tenth of a second from t = 5 to t =
5.1:

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Example 3 – Solution
cont’
The following table shows the results of similar d
calculations of the average velocity over
successively smaller time periods.

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Example 3 – Solution
cont’
It appears that as we shorten the time period, the d
average velocity is becoming closer to 49 m/s.

The instantaneous velocity when t = 5 is defined

to be the limiting value of these average velocities
over shorter and shorter time periods that start at t
= 5.

Thus it appears that the (instantaneous) velocity

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The difference quotient, definition of
derivative

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Slope
Slope: the rate at which a line rises or falls

For a line, the rate (or slope) is the same at every

point on the line.

For graphs other than lines, the rate at which the

graph rises or falls changes from point to point.

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Slope

This parabola is rising

more quickly at point A
than it is at point B.

At the vertex, point C,

the graph levels off.

At point D the graph is

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falling.
Slope
To determine the rate at which a graph rises or falls
at a single point, we can find the slope of the
tangent line to the point.

How do we calculate the slope of a tangent line?

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The Difference Quotient
The derivative is the slope of the tangent line to a
graph f(x), and is usually denoted f’(x).

To calculate the slope of the tangent line we will use

the difference quotient.

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The Difference Quotient

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Limit Definition of the Derivative
The derivative is the formula which gives
the slope of the tangent line at any point x
for f (x), and is denoted

f ( x  x )  f ( x )
f '( x)  lim
x 0 x

provided this limit exists.

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Derivatives
The derivative of the function y = f (x) may be
expressed as …

f '( x ) “f prime of x”
Prime notation
y' “y prime”

dy
Leibniz notation “the derivative of y with respect to x”
dx

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Derivatives
The process of finding derivatives is called
differentiation.

A function is differentiable at a point if its derivative

exists at that point.

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Limit Definition of the Derivative
Use the limit definition to find the derivative of:

f ( x)  x 2  3x  5

f ( x  x )  f ( x )
f '( x)  lim
x 0 x

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 Limit Definition of the Derivative

f ( x)  x 2  3x  5
f ( x  x )  f ( x )
f '( x)  lim
x 0 x
( x  x) 2  3( x  x)  5  ( x 2  3 x  5)
f '( x)  lim
x 0 x

x 2  2 xx  (x) 2  3 x  3x  5  x 2  3 x  5

f '( x)  lim
x 0 x

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 Limit Definition of the Derivative

2 xx  (x)  3x

2
f '( x)  lim
x 0 x
x(2 x  x  3)
f '( x)  lim
x 0 x

f '( x)  2 x  3

A formula for finding the

slope of the tangent line
of f (x) at a given point.
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Limit Definition of the Derivative
Use the limit definition to find the derivative of:

f ( x)  8 x 2  1

f ( x  x )  f ( x )
f '( x)  lim
x 0 x

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Limit Definition of the Derivative

f ( x)  8 x 2  1
f ( x  x )  f ( x )
f '( x)  lim
x 0 x
8( x  x) 2  1  (8 x 2  1)
f '( x)  lim
x 0 x

8( x 2  2 xx  (x) 2 )  1  8 x 2  1
f '( x)  lim
x 0 x

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 Limit Definition of the Derivative
8 x  16 xx  8(x)  1  8 x  1
2 2 2
f '( x)  lim
x 0 x

x (16 x  8x)
f '( x)  lim
x 0 x

f '( x )  16 x

A formula for finding the

slope of the tangent line
of f (x) at a given point.
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Differentiability
Not every function is differentiable at all points.
Some common situations in which a function will
not be differentiable at a point include:
1. Vertical tangent lines
2. Discontinuities (like a hole, break, or vertical
asymptote)
3. Sharp turns (called cusps & nodes)

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Differentiability

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Differentiability

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Differentiability

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Differentiability

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The Derivative is…
computed by finding the limit of the difference
quotient as ∆x approaches 0.

the slope of a function at a point.

the slope of the tangent line to a graph f (x), and is

usually denoted f’(x).

the instantaneous rate of change of a function. 42