Thread: Simple Derivatives

Hello,

I'm teaching myself Calculus, as I see a need for it in my future career. I started watching some basic calculus videos from MIT, but there are a few questions I would like to ask:

I am aware of the following rule:



However, I don't understand how to apply it to a function such as this:



Or this:



I would appreciate any assistance!

Thanks,

Austin

Originally Posted by ElectroNerd

Hello,

I'm teaching myself Calculus, as I see a need for it in my future career. I started watching some basic calculus videos from MIT, but there are a few questions I would like to ask:

I am aware of the following rule:



However, I don't understand how to apply it to a function such as this:



Or this:



I would appreciate any assistance!

Thanks,

Austin

you also need to be aware that the derivative (rate of change) of a constant is 0





for the second, just use the power rule ...

You also need to know that and where c is any constant.
(You typically learn those before you learn .)

where I have used the fact that for all x except 0.