You have learned that derivative is the slope of a tangent line of a function at any point. In this topic, you will learn how to apply basic techniques to calculate the derivative of a function.
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to apply the basic techniques to find the derivative of an equation.
Estimated time: 25 minutes
You have learnt from an earlier lesson that, givn a function f(x), its derivative is represented by the notation f'(x) , provided the limit exists as h approaches zero. f'(x) can also be denoted by the notation dy/dx. You have also learnt that the derivative of a function f(x) is the slope of the tangent at point x on the curve.
We can use the definition of derivative in the previous section to calculate the derivative of an equation such as the one of shown here. However, it will be very tedious. If you are interested to find out, go to the section on 'Find out more'. Instead, for this lesson, we will apply the many techniques already available of us to find the derivative of a function. You will learn this in the next section.
In this section, we will cover the following basic differentiation techniques: Constant Rule, Power Rule, Constant Multiple Rule and Sum & Difference Rule.
In the above video, you learn how to apply the following basic differentiation techniques:
Here are some additional worked examples using basic differentiation techniques:
Question 01/05