A-level Mathematics/MEI/C3/Differentiation

Differentiation in Core 3 (C3) are an extension of the work that you did in Core 1 and Core 2.

Differentiation

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Standard Derivatives

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For the C3 module, there are a few standard results for differentiation that need to be learnt. These are:

 

 

 

 

 

Chain Rule

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The Chain Rule is used to differentiate when one function is applied to another function. A typical example of this is:

 

One of the ways of remembering the chain rule is: Find the derivative outside, then multiply it by the derivative inside. In the example above, this becomes:

 

Product Rule

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The product rule is used when two functions are multiplied together.

Quotient Rule

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The quotient rule is used when one function is divided by another. It is a specific case of the product rule. A typical example of this is:

Implicit Differentiation

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Implicit differentiation is used when a function is not a simple   but contains a mixture of x and y parts. A typical example of this is to differentiate:

 

When differentiating the y components of the expression you differentiate as normal, and then multiply by  . So differentiating both sides of the above expression it becomes:

 

Then by factorising the left hand side and cancelling, this becomes: