Brief Calculus.

Question

Find the derivative of each.

a) f(x) = 7x^2+5x-2.6

b) g(x) = -2x^3+5x^2-2.6x+7

c) f(x) = 7/x+5x-1.3x^-5

d) f(x) = 8/sqrt x + sqrt x

e) p (x) = 3x^2+2x-7/2x

f) w(x) = (2x-7)(5x+4)

g) m (x) = 8/x^3 + 10/x

Answer 1

Hi Peter,

These can be solved with the power rule;

ie d/dx (x^n) = nx^(n-1)

As an example, for a:

d/dx (7x^2) = 2 * 7x^(2-1) = 14x^1

d/dx (5x) = 1 * 5x^(1-1) = 5x^0

d/dx (-2.6) = 0

(Recall that -2.6 = -2.6x^0 and the derivative of that would be 0 * 2.6x^(-1) but 0 multiplied by anything is 0.)

Therefore for a, we should get 14x + 5.

Hope this helps get you started on your problem set.

-Winn