Tangent Lines and Rates of Change

• In lecture 9, we saw that a Secant line btw two points was turned into a
tangent line
• This was done by moving one of the points towards the other one
• The secant line rotated into a LIMITING position which we regarded as a
TANGENT line

• For now just consider Secant lines joining two points on a curve (graph) if
a function of the form y = f (x). If P( x0 , y0 ) and Q( x1 , y1 ) are distinct points
on a curve y = f(x), then secant line connecting them has slope
f ( x1 )  f ( x0 )
msec 
x1  x0

• If we let x1  x0 then Q will approach P ALONG THE Graph of the

function y = f(x), and the secant line will approach the tangent line at P.
• This will mean that the slope of the Secant line will approach that of the
Tangent line at P as x1  x0 So we have the following
f ( x1 )  f ( x0 )
mtan  lim
x1  x0 x1  x0
 Average and Instantaneous Velocity
• We just saw how to find the slope of a tangent line.
• This was a geometric problem
• In the 17th century, mathematicians wanted to define the idea of
Instantaneous velocity.
• This was a theoretical idea.
• But they realized that this could be defined using the geometric idea of
tangents.
• Let's define Average velocity formally
distance travelled
Avergae Velocity 
Time Elapsed
• This formula tells us that the average velocity is the velocity at which one
travels on average during some interval of time!!
• More interesting than Average Velocity is the idea of Instantaneous
velocity
• This is the velocity that an object is traveling at a given INSTANT in
time.
• When a car hits a tree, the damage is determined by the
INSTANTANEOUS velocity at the moment of impact, not on the average
speed during some time interval before the impact.
• To define the concept of instant velocity, we will first look at distance as a
function of time, d = f(t). After all, distance covered is a physical
phenomenon which is always measured w.r.t to time. Going from New
York to San Francisco (km) takes about 6 hours, if your average speed is
800 km/h. This will give us a way to plot the position versus time curve for
motion.
• Now we will give a geometric meaning to the concept of Average
Velocity.
• Average velocity is defined as the distance traveled over a given time
period . So if your curve for f(t) looks like as given below
then the average velocity over the time interval [t0 , t1 ] is defined as
distance traveled during the interval
Avergae Velocity 
Time Elapsed
d1  d 0 f (t )  f (t0 )
vave  1
t1  t0 t1  t0
• d1  d 0 is the distance traveled in the interval [t0 , t1 ]
• So average velocity is just the slope of the Secant line joining the points
(t0 , d 0 ) and (t1 , d1 )
• Say we want to know the instant velocity at the point t0
• We can find this by letting t1 approach t0. When this happens , the
interval over which the average velocity is measured shrinks and we can
approximate instant velocity
• As t1 gets very close to t0 , our approximate instant velocity will get better
and better
• As this continues, we can see that the average velocity over the interval
gets closer to inst velocity at t0
• So we can say
f (t1 )  f (t0 )
vinst lim vave lim
t1  t0 t1  t0 t1  t0
• But this is just the slope of the tangent line at the point (t0 , d 0 ).
Remember that the limit here means that the 2 sided limits exist
 Average and Instantaneous rates of change
• Let's make the idea of average and inst velocity more general
• Velocity is the rate of the change of position with respect to time.
• Algebraically we could say: Rate of change of d w.r.t t Where d = f(t)

• rate of change of bacteria w.r.t time

• rate of change a length of a metal rod w.r.t to Temperature
• rate of change of production cost w.r.t quantity produced.
All of these have the idea of the rate of change of one quantity w.r.t another
quantity.
• We will look at quantities related by a functional relationship y = f(x)
• So we consider the rate of change of y w.r.t x or in other words, the rate of
change of the dependant variable (quantity) w.r.t the Independent variable
(quantity)
• Average rate of change will be represented by the slope of a certain
Secant Line
• Instantaneous rate of change will be represented by the slope of a certain
tangent Line.
Definition 3.1.1

If y= f(x), then the Average rate of Change of y with respect to x over

the interval [ x0 , x1 ] is the slope of the secant line joining the points
[ x0 , f ( x0 )] [ xand
1 , f ( x1 )]
. That is
f ( x1 )  f ( x0 )
msec 
x1  x0
And on the graph of f .
Definition 3.1.1

If y= f(x), then the Instantaneous rate of Change of y with respect to the

point x0 is the slope of the tangent line to the graph of f at the point x0
That is f ( x1 )  f ( x0 )
mtan  lim
x1  x0 x1  x0

Example
2
Let y  f ( x) x  1

a) Find the average rate of y w..r.t to x over the interval [3,5]

b) Find the instantaneous rate of change of y w.r.t x at thex x0 pointx0
= -4
c) Find the instantaneous rate of change of y w.r.t x at a general point
a) We use the formula in definition of Average rate with
y  f ( x) x 2  1, x0 3 and x1 5

f ( x1 )  f ( x0 ) f (5)  f (3) 26  10
msec    8
x1  x0 5 3 5 3

So y increase 8 units for each unit increases in x over the interval [3,5]
b) Applying the formula with y  f ( x) x 2  1 and x0  4gives
f ( x1 )  f ( x0 ) ( x12  1)  17
mtan  lim  lim
x1  x0 x1  x0 x1   4 x1  4
x12  16
 lim  lim ( x1  4)  8
x1   4 x  4 x1   4
1

Negative inst rate of change means its DECREASING

c) Here we have
f ( x1 )  f ( x0 ) ( x12  1)  ( x0 2  1)
mtan  lim  lim
x1  x0 x1  x0 x1  x0 x1  x0
x12  x0 2
 lim  lim ( x1  x0 ) 2 x0
x1  x0 x  x x1  x0
1 0

The result of part b) can be obtained from this general result by letting
x0  4