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Differentiation help!

May sound silly question, but trying to teach myself... can someone help me with finding the derivatives of the following equations:

e^x/2

Ln(x/4)

Find the gradient of the curve whose equation is y=e^3x at the point (0,1)
Reply 1
You should look into chain derivatives for compositions of functions. Otherwise, you have to rely upon a table of derivatives for the derivative of the natural logarithm.
If you ever need examples of full solutions to derivatives, you should try out this derivative calculator with steps.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by Olmeister
May sound silly question, but trying to teach myself... can someone help me with finding the derivatives of the following equations:

e^x/2

Ln(x/4)

Find the gradient of the curve whose equation is y=e^3x at the point (0,1)


Use the chain rule.
Reply 3
As people above me said, use the chain rule... for the ln(x/4) though I would use one of the log rules first
Original post by asinghj
As people above me said, use the chain rule... for the ln(x/4) though I would use one of the log rules first


We want dy/dx
y=ln(x/4)
let u = x/4
du/dx = 1/4
...
y=ln(u)
dy/du = 1/u
1/u = 4/x

therefore dy/du *du/dx = dy/dx (in this case behaves like a fraction and du cancels)
so 4/x * 1/4 = 1/x
dy/dx = 1/x
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 5
Original post by Kawaii289
We want dy/dx
y=ln(x/4)
let u = x/4
du/dx = 1/4
...
y=ln(u)
dy/du = 1/u
1/u = 4/x

therefore dy/du *du/dx = dy/dx (in this case behaves like a fraction and du cancels)
so 4/x * 1/4 = 1/x
dy/dx = 1/x


I know that's works but I would do this:

ln(x4)=ln(x)ln(4) ln(\frac{x}{4}) = ln(x) - ln(4)

Therefore

dydx=1x \frac{dy}{dx} = \frac{1}{x}

The ln(4) is a constant so it becomes 0 after differentiating
Original post by asinghj
I know that's works but I would do this:

ln(x4)=ln(x)ln(4) ln(\frac{x}{4}) = ln(x) - ln(4)

Therefore

dydx=1x \frac{dy}{dx} = \frac{1}{x}

The ln(4) is a constant so it becomes 0 after differentiating


Oh I see what you mean. Yes! that is a much nicer way of doing it for this question! :biggrin:
Reply 7
Original post by Kawaii289
Oh I see what you mean. Yes! that is a much nicer way of doing it for this question! :biggrin:


I used to do it the way you did it, but my teacher showed this way and it becomes so much simpler

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