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Differentiating Special Functions: Harvey Mudd College Math Tutorial

This tutorial reviews differentiating special functions including: 1) The derivatives of trigonometric functions such as sin(x), cos(x), and tan(x) are derived using the limit definition of the derivative or the quotient rule. 2) The derivative of the natural logarithm ln(x) is equal to 1/x for all values of x except 0. 3) By differentiating both sides of the identity ln(ex) = x, it can be shown that the derivative of the exponential function ex is equal to ex.

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97 views

Differentiating Special Functions: Harvey Mudd College Math Tutorial

This tutorial reviews differentiating special functions including: 1) The derivatives of trigonometric functions such as sin(x), cos(x), and tan(x) are derived using the limit definition of the derivative or the quotient rule. 2) The derivative of the natural logarithm ln(x) is equal to 1/x for all values of x except 0. 3) By differentiating both sides of the identity ln(ex) = x, it can be shown that the derivative of the exponential function ex is equal to ex.

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© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Harvey Mudd College Math Tutorial:

Dierentiating Special Functions


In this tutorial, we review the dierentiation of trigonometric, logarithmic, and exponential functions.

Trigonometric Functions The derivatives of the basic trigonometric functions are given here for reference. f (x) sin x cos x tan x sec x csc x cot x f (x) cos x sin x sec2 x sec x tan x csc x cot x csc2 x

The derivatives of sin x and cos x can be derived using the limit denition of the derivative. For sin x, d sin(x + h) sin(x) (sin x) = lim h0 dx h (sin x cos h + cos x sin h) sin x = lim h0 h cos h 1 sin h = lim sin x + cos x h0 h h cos h 1 sin h = sin x lim + cos x lim h0 h0 h h = sin x(0) + cos x(1) = cos x. The derivative of cos x is derived analogously. Then the remaining derivatives can be derived using the Quotient Rule, since all the other trigonometric functions are quotients involving sin x and cos x. Example The derivative of tan(x2 ) is sec2 (x2 ) d 2 (x ) = 2x sec2 (x2 ) by the chain rule. dx

Logarithmic Functions By the denition of the natural logarithm, d 1 d 1 [ln x] = for x > 0. Also, [ln |x|] = for dx x dx x all x = 0. To see this, suppose x < 0. Then ln |x| = ln(x).

So d d [ln |x|] = [ln(x)] dx dx d 1 = (x) dx x 1 = (1) x 1 = x Example By the chain rule, the derivative of ln(x3 + 5) is 1 3x2 d(x3 + 5) 3 = 3 . dx x +5 x +5

Exponential Functions d x There is an elegant way to show that [e ] = ex . We start with the identity ln(ex ) = x. dx Dierentiating both sides, d [ln(ex )] dx d [ln(ex )] dx d x 1 (e ) x dx e d x (e ) dx = d (x) dx

= 1 = 1 = ex .

Since ex is never 0, this derivation holds for all x. Example The derivative of e3x+2 is e3x+2 d (3x + 2) = 3e3x+2 . dx

Key Concepts

f (x) sin x cos x tan x sec x csc x cot x ln x ex

f (x) cos x sin x sec2 x sec x tan x csc x cot x csc2 x e


1 x x

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