Higher Mathematics:

Unit 1.3
Introduction to Differentiation

Required skills
Before we start .
You will need to remember work with
Indices, as well as what you have
learned about Straight Lines from Unit
1.1.
Lets recall the rules on indices ..

Rules of indices
Rule

12.3140 = 1

a0 = 1
a =
-m

1
x = 5
x

1
am

a a
m

m+n

am an = am-n
(am)n = amn

3
n

-5

m
n

a a =a
m

Examples

x
2

2
3

2a3/2 3a1/2
=

6
5

6
5
=
y
y
3
2

= 6a a

2 3
x
x x =
5
x
=
2

6a 2

-3

2
2
2
q

q
(q ) =
= q6
2 3

1
2

What is Differentiation?
Differentiation is the process of deriving
f (x) from f(x). We will look at this
process in a second.
f (x) is called the derived function or
derivative of f(x).
The derived function represents:
the rate of change of the function
the gradient of the tangent to the graph of the
function.

Tangents to curves
The derivative function is a measure of the gradient or slope of a
function at any given point. This requires us to consider the
gradient of a line.
We can do this if we think about how we measure the gradient
from Unit 1.1

B(x2,y2)

y2 y1
A(x1,y1)

The gradient of AB = mAB

x2 x1
C

y2 y1
m
, Gradient Formula
x2 x1

Change in y

Change in x
y2 y1

x 2 x1

Tangents to curves
We will investigate the tangent
to a curve at a single point.

The points A and B lie on a

function. The line joining A and
B is not a tangent to the curve at
the point A. If we think about
moving the point B towards A,
the slope of the line will change.
We can observe the results by watching this graphically. We
will take the simple function f(x) = x2

Click the graphic to investigate this function.

Tangents to curves
Observe the table of results and
suggest a relationship between
the value of the slope of the
tangent and the value of x on the
function
f(x) = x2

f (x)

It appears that the relationship

may be
f (x) = 2x

-1

-2

Can we find this algebraically?

-2

-4

Tangents to curves
We will look at a function and think about the gradient of the function at any
given point. The function itself is not important, the process we go through
to get the gradient is. We want to find the gradient at a point on a curve.
f(x)

A is the point (x, f(x)) and B

is a point on the function a
short distance h from A.
This gives B the coordinates
(x+h, f(x+h))

f(x+h)

The line AB is shown on the

diagram. We want to find the
gradient of the curve at A. If we
find the gradient of the line AB
and move B towards A we should
get the gradient at A.

f(x)
x

x+h

Tangents to curves
The gradient of the line AB would
therefore be

mAB
mAB
mAB

change in y

change in x
y2 - y1

x2 - x1

x+h f(x+h)

x f(x)

mAB

f ( x h) f ( x )

Tangents to curves
Look at what happens as we move
B towards A, i.e. h is getting
smaller.
As the size of h gets smaller and
smaller the line AB becomes the
tangent to the curve at the point
A. We refer to this as the limit
as h 0. Note that h cannot
become 0 or we would not get a
line AB!
The gradient of the line AB
becomes the same as the
gradient of the curve at A
This is the value we were looking
for.

Putting it together.
Differentiate the function f(x) = x2
from first principles.
The derivative is the same as the
gradient of the tangent to the
curve so we can go straight to
the gradient formula we saw in
the previous slides.

f ( x) lim
h0

( x h) 2 x 2
f ( x) lim
h0
h

x 2 2 xh h 2 x 2
f ( x) lim
h 0
h
2 xh h 2
f ( x) lim
h 0
h
h(2 x h)
f ( x) lim
h 0
h
h gets so
f ( x) lim(2 x h)
small its
h 0

The limit as h 0 is
written as lim
h0

f ( x h) f ( x )
h

f ( x) 2 x

effectively
zero.

What does the answer mean?

For each and every point on the
curve f(x)=x2 , the gradient of
the tangent to the curve at
the point x is given by the
formula
y
f (x)=2x
y
y
10
10
10

A table of results 222might make this

clearer
2

2
2
4

4
4

-6
-4

-2
-1

4
4
4

m=0

-3

6
6
6

2
2

Gradient of the tangent

8
8
8

4
4

Value of x

2
2
2

4
4
4

3
x
x
x

-2
0
2
4
6
8

Is there an easier way to do

We can agree
the
6
6
6

this?
8 graphically and
observation
8
8

10

algebraically.
10
10

Spot the pattern

f(x)
f(x)

ff (x)
(x)

f(x)
f(x)

fff (x)
(x)
(x)

f(x)
f(x)
f(x)

fff(x)
(x)
(x)

x22

2x

2x222
2x

4x

3x333
3x
3x

9x2

x33

3x

3x222
3x

6x

5x444
5x
5x

20x3

x4

4x3

4x22
4x

8x

7x333
7x
7x

21x2

x5

5x4

5x22
5x

10x

6x777
6x
6x

42x6

xn

nxn-1

ax
ax22

2ax

ax
ax
axnnn

anxn-1

Rules for differentiation

There are four rules for differentiating
remember these and you can
differentiate anything
Rule

Examples

f(x) = xn f (x) = nxn-1

f(x) = cx

f (x) = cnx

f(x) = x6 f (x) = 6 x 6 - 1 = 6 x 5
n-1

f(x)= 4x2 f (x) = 4 x 2 x 2-1

= 8 x 1 or 8 x

f(x) = c f (x) = 0

f(x) = 65 f (x) = 0

f(x) = g(x) + h(x)

f(x)= x6 + 4x2 + 65 f (x) = 6 x 5 + 8x
f (x) = g (x) + h (x)

Notation
There are many different ways of writing f (x):

f (x)

dy
dx

df
dx

d
dx

( f ( x))

y (x)

The most common of these are:

f (x) functional notation used when function is defined as f(x)

dy
dx

Leibnitz notation used when function is defined as y =

The Gradient of a Tangent

Remember:
Differentiation is used to find the gradient of a
tangent to a graph.
Find the equation of the tangent to the curve y = 3x3 x + 6 at x = 2.
A tangent is a straight line, so we need to use:
y b = m(x a)
To use this we need to know:
the gradient of the tangent at the point on the curve
(in this case when x = 2)
the coordinates of a point on the line (in this case (2, ?) )

The Gradient of a Tangent

Step 1 :

Finding the gradient when x = 2

Differentiate the function

y 3x3 x 6

As the function is given in terms of y we will use the dy/dx notation

y 3x x 6
3

dy
dx

9x2 1

At the point x = 2,

dy
dx

9(2) 1

dy
dx

35

So the gradient of the tangent is 35

The Gradient of a Tangent

Step 2 :

Finding the coordinates at the point

At the point x = 2 the function value is given by

y = 3 (2)3 2 + 6
y = 3(8) + 4
y = 28
The coordinate is therefore the point (2, 28)

The Gradient of a Tangent

Step 3 :

Finding the equation of the tangent

The line passing through (2,28) with gradient 35 is :

y b m( x a )
y 28 35( x 2)
y 28 35 x 70
y 35 x 42
The equation of the tangent at x = 2 is y 35x + 42 = 0

The Gradient of a Tangent

100
20
40
60
80
60
20
40
1 3
2
3
4
5
1
2

You can confirm this

by checking on a
graphing calculator
or by sketch.

y
100
80
60
40
20

1
20
40
60

Sketching Graphs of Derived Functions

We can investigate graphs of derived functions by
looking at a dynamic setting of a function, along with
the resulting derived function.

There are 3 examples shown on separate pages.

Look at each one and build up the derived graph as
you are prompted. Try to predict the derivative of the
third graph before it is drawn.

Click the graphic to start your investigation

Sketching Graphs of Derived Functions

We can sketch the graph of the derived function, f (x), by considering the
graph of f(x).
y

The diagram shows the graph of y = f(x)

Sketch the graph of y = f (x)
Step 1 Decide what type of function it is:

y = f(x)
(-1,4)

This looks like a cubic function,

i.e. it has an x3 term in it.

(3,-2)

When we differentiate the function

the x3 term will become an x2 term.

f (x) will be a quadratic function and will look like this

or

Sketching Graphs of Derived Functions

Step 2 Consider the gradient of the function at key points
y

Tangent is
horizontal
m=0

Gradient is
negative
m<0

Gradient is
positive
m>0

y = f(x)

(-1,4)

(3,-2)

Gradient is
positive
m>0

Tangent is horizontal
m=0

This can be summarised on a table

Sketching Graphs of Derived Functions

y

y = f(x)
(-1,4)

(3,-2)

x
f (x)

-1

+ ve

- ve

+ ve

Sketching Graphs of Derived Functions

Step 3

x
f (x)

Sketch this information as a graph

-1
-1

3
3

+ ve

- ve

+ ve

(x)
ff '' (x)

f(x) +ve above

the line
xx

f(x) = 0 on
the line
f(x) -ve below
the line