MODULE I

FUNCTIONS, DERIVATIVE, AND SLOPE

Lesson 1 Functions

Lesson 2 Continuity and Limits

Lesson 3 The Derivative

Lesson 4 The Slope

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MODULE I

FUNCTIONS, DERIVATIVE, AND SLOPE

 INTRODUCTION

This module illustrates and discuss the different algebraic and

transcendental functions. This involves basic mathematics and theorems
leading to the appreciation of derivatives in solving mathematical problems.

OBJECTIVES

After studying the module, the students should be able to:

1. differentiate algebraic and transcendental functions,

2. identify slope and rate of change,
3. identify continuity and limit functions, and
4. define what is derivative.

 DIRECTIONS/ MODULE ORGANIZER

There are four lessons in the module. Read each lesson carefully then
answer the exercises/activities to find out how much you have benefited from
it. Work on these exercises carefully and submit your output to your tutor or
to the IABE (Institute of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering) office.

In case you encounter difficulty, discuss this with your tutor during the
face-to-face meeting. If not contact your tutor at the IABE office.

Good luck and happy reading!!!

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Lesson 1

 Functions

Functions

The term function was first used by Leibniz in 1673 to denote the
dependence of one quantity on another. In general, when two quantities x
and y are related so that for some range of values of x the value of y is
determined by that of x, we say that y is a function of x.

Graphing a function

You get the graph of a function f by drawing all points whose

coordinates are (x; y) where x must be in the domain of f and y = f(x).

Figure 1. Graph of a function f

The line is the graph of f(x) = mx + n. It intersects the y-axis at height

n, and the ratio between the amounts by which y and x increase as you move
𝑦1−𝑦0
from one point to another on the line is 𝑥1−𝑥0= m.

Figure 2. A straight line and its slope

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Classification of functions

• Constant functions: f(x) = c

• Polynomial functions: f(x) = a0 + a1x1 + · · · + an−1xn−1 + anxn
• Rational functions: ratio of polynomials functions,
• Irrational functions: Root extractions,
• Piece-wise functions. e.g. f(x) =| x − 1 |
• Transcendental: trigonometric expressions, exponentials and logarithms.

Definition of a Limit

Let f(x) be a function of x and let a be constant. If there is a number L such

that, in order to make the value of f(x) as close to L as may be desired, it is
sufficient to choose x close enough to a, but different from a, then we say
that the limit of f(x), as x approaches a, is L.

Theorems on Limits
1. The limit of the sum of two (or more) functions is equal to the sum of
their limits.
lim [f(x) + g(x)] = lim f(x) + lim g(x)

2. The limit of the product of two (or more) functions is equal to the
product of their limits.
lim [f(x) ∗ g(x)] = lim f(x) ∗ lim g(x)

3. The limit of the quotient of two (or more) functions is equal to the
quotient of their limits, provided the limit of the denominator is not
zero.
lim [f(x)/g(x)] = lim f(x)/ lim g(x),if lim g(x) ≠ 0

Why use implicit functions? In all the examples we have done so far we could
replace the implicit description of the function with an explicit formula. This
is not always possible or if it is possible the implicit description is much
simpler than the explicit formula. For instance, you can define a function f
by saying that y = f(x) if and only if

y3 + 3y + 2x = 0

This means that the recipe for computing f(x) for any given x is "solve
the equation y3 + 3y + 2x = 0."

E.g. to compute f(0) you set x = 0 and solve y 3 + 3y = 0. The only

solution is y = 0, so f(0) = 0. To compute f(1) you have to solve y 3 + 3y + 2 *
1 = 0, and if you're lucky you see that y = -1 is the solution, and f(1) = -1.

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Lesson 2

 Continuity and Limits

Continuity

A function f is said to be continuous at a point c if the following

conditions are satisfied:
— f(c) is defined
— lim f(x) exists
x→c
— lim f(x) = f (c).
x→c

Examples: f(x) = x2 − x − 1 is a continuous function,

f (x) = x2−4/x−2 is not a continuous function at x = 2, because
it is not defined at this point.
f(x) = x2−4/x−2 , x≠ 2, and f(x) = 3, x = 2 is not a continuous
function because lim f(x) ≠f (2).
x→2

Properties

• Polynomials are continuous functions.

• Rational functions are continuous everywhere except at the points,
where the denominator is zero.
• lim f(g(x)) = f(lim(g(x)), if ∃ lim g(x) and if f(x) is continuous at lim
g(x).
• If the function g is continuous at the point c and the function f is
continuous at the point g(c), then the composition f ◦ g is continuous
at c.
• If a function f is continuous and has an inverse, then f −1 is also
continuous.
• The functions sin x and cos x are continuous.
• The functions tan x, cot x, sec x and csc x are continuous except at the
points that they are not defined, the denominator is zero.

Infinite Discontinuities

A frequently occurring type of discontinuity is that in which the

function increases numerically without bound as x approaches a: we say that
the function has an infinite discontinuity at x=a. Graphically this means that
the curve approaches the line x =a, usually without ever reaching it, at the
same time receding from the x-axis. It may happen that f(x) becomes large
both sides of the line x=a.

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Rational Algebraic Functions

With regard to rational algebraic functions, the question of continuity

is completely covered by the following theorems:
1. A polynomial is continuous for all values of x.
2. A rational algebraic fraction is continuous except for those value of x
for which the denominator vanishes.

The Intermediate Value Theorem

The function f(x) is said to be continuous over the closed interval a≤

x≤b if f(x) is continuous at every interior point a < x< b and f(x) has right-
hand continuity at x =a and left-hand continuity at x = b.

Theorem1: If the single-valued function f(x) is continuous over the closed

interval a≤ x≤b, then in that interval f(x) takes on every value between f(a)
and f(b).

Theorem2: If f(x) is continuous over the closed interval a≤ x≤b, f(x) takes on
a greatest value and a least value in the closed interval.

The theorem states that there is at least one point x 1 in a≤ x1≤b such that
f(x1)≥ f(x) for all x in a≤ x≤b. There may be many such points, each with the
same maximum value for f(x). The situation with regard to least (minimum)
values is similar.

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Lesson 3

 The Derivative

To work with derivatives you have to know what a limit is, but to
motivate why we are going to study limits let’s first look at the two classical
problems that gave rise to the notion of a derivative: the tangent to a curve,
and the instantaneous velocity of a moving object.

1. The tangent to a curve

Suppose you have a function y = f(x) and you draw its graph. If you
want to find the tangent to the graph of f at some given point on the graph
of f, how would you do that?

Let P be the point on the graph at which want to draw the tangent. If
you are making a real paper and ink drawing you would take a ruler, make
sure it goes through P and then turn it until it doesn’t cross the graph
anywhere else.

If you are using equations to describe the curve and lines, then you
could pick a point Q on the graph and construct the line through P and Q
(“construct” means “find an equation for”). This line is called a “secant,”
and it is of course not the tangent that you’re looking for. But if you choose
Q to be very close to P then the secant will be close to the tangent.

So this is our recipe for constructing the tangent through P: pick

another point Q on the graph, find the line through P and Q, and see what
happens to this line as you take Q closer and closer to P. The resulting

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secants will then get closer and closer to some line, and that line is the
tangent.

We’ll write this in formulas in a moment, but first let’s worry about
how close Q should be to P. We can’t set Q equal to P, because then P and Q
don’t determine a line (you need two points to determine a line). If you
choose Q different from P then you don’t get the tangent, but at best
something that is “close” to it. Some people have suggested that one should
take Q “infinitely close” to P, but it isn’t clear what that would mean. The
concept of a limit is meant to solve this confusing problem.

2. An example – tangent to a parabola

To make things more concrete, suppose that the function we had was
f(x) = x2, and that the point was (1, 1). The graph of f is of course a parabola.
Any line through the point P(1, 1) has equation
y − 1 = m(x − 1)
where m is the slope of the line. So instead of finding the equation of the
secant and tangent lines we will find their slopes.
Let Q be the other point on the parabola, with coordinates (x, x 2). We
can “move Q around on the graph” by changing x. Whatever x we choose, it
must be different from 1, for otherwise P and Q would be the same point.
What we want to find out is how the line through P and Q changes if x is
changed (and in particular, if x is chosen very close to a). Now, as one
changes x one thing stays the same, namely, the secant still goes through P.
So to describe the secant we only need to know its slope. By the “rise over
run” formula, the slope of the secant line joining P and Q is

By factoring x2 − 1 we can rewrite the formula for the slope as follows

As x gets closer to 1, the slope mPQ, being x + 1, gets closer to the value 1 +
1 = 2. We say that the limit of the slope mPQ as Q approaches P is 2.

In symbols,

or, since Q approaching P is the same as x approaching 1,

So we find that the tangent line to the parabola y = x2 at the point (1, 1) has
equation

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3. Instantaneous velocity

If you try to define “instantaneous velocity” you will again end up

trying to divide zero by zero. Here is how it goes: When you are driving in
your car the speedometer tells you how fast your are going, i.e. what your
velocity is. What is this velocity? What does it mean if the speedometer says
“50mph”?

We all know what average velocity is. Namely, if it takes you two hours
to cover 100 miles, then your average velocity was

This is not the number the speedometer provides you – it doesn’t wait
two hours, measure how far you went and compute distance/time. If the
speedometer in your car tells you that you are driving 50mph, then that should
be your velocity at the moment that you look at your speedometer, i.e.
“distance traveled over time it took” at the moment you look at the
speedometer. But during the moment you look at your speedometer no time
goes by (because a moment has no length) and you didn’t cover any distance,
so your velocity at that moment is 0/0, i.e. undefined. Your velocity at any
moment is undefined. But then what is the speedometer telling you?

To put all this into formulas we need to introduce some notation. Let
t be the time (in hours) that has passed since we got onto the road, and let
s(t) be the distance we have covered since then.

Instead of trying to find the velocity exactly at time t, we find a

formula for the average velocity during some (short) time interval beginning
at time t. We’ll write ∆t for the length of the time interval.

At time t we have traveled s(t) miles. A little later, at time t + ∆t we

have traveled s(t + ∆t). Therefore during the time interval from t to t + ∆t
we have moved s(t + ∆t) − s(t) miles. Our average velocity in that time
interval is therefore

The shorter you make the time interval, i.e. the smaller you choose ∆t,
the closer this number should be to the instantaneous velocity at time t.
So we have the following formula (definition, really) for the velocity
at time t

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4. Rates of change

The two previous examples have much in common. If we ignore all the
details about geometry, graphs, highways and motion, the following
happened in both examples:

We had a function y = f(x), and we wanted to know how much f(x)

changes if x changes. If you change x to x + ∆x, then y will change from f(x)
to f(x + ∆x). The change in y is therefore

and the average rate of change is

This is the average rate of change of f over the interval from x to x +

∆x. To define the rate of change of the function f at x we let the length ∆x
of the interval become smaller and smaller, in the hope that the average rate
of change over the shorter and shorter time intervals will get closer and closer
to some number. If that happens then that “limiting number” is called the
rate of change of f at x, or, the derivative of f at x. It is written as

Determination of the Derivative

To obtain the derivative of any function, the general process is as

follows:
1. Replace x by x+∆x, and y by y+∆y:
y = f(x), (1)
y+∆y = f(x+∆x). (2)
2. By subtraction, eliminate y between (1) and (2), thus obtaining a
formula for ∆y in terms of x and ∆x:

∆y = f(x+∆x) – f(x)

3. By some suitable transformation, throw the right member of (3) into a

form which contains ∆x explicitly as a factor.
4. Divide through by ∆x:

∆y/∆x = f(x+∆x) – f(x) / ∆x

5. Determine the limit as ∆x approaches zero.

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Lesson 4

 The Slope

The derivative of f(x) at the point x=a is the slope of the tangent to (a,
f(a)). In order to gain an intuition for this, one must first be familiar with
finding the slope of a linear equation, written in the form y=m x + b. The
slope of an equation is steepness. It can be found by picking any two points
and dividing the change in y by the change in x, meaning that slope = change
in y/ change in x. For, the graph of y = 2x + 13 has a slope of -2, as shown in
the diagram below:

change in y / change in x = -6/+3 = -2

For brevity, change in y / change in x is often written as ∆y/∆x, with ∆ being

the Greek letter Delta, meaning ‘change in’. The slope of a linear equation
is constant, meaning that the steepness is the same everywhere. However,
many graphs, for instance y = x2, vary in their steepness. This means that you
can no longer pick any two arbitrary points and compute the slope. Instead,
the slope of the graph is defined using a tangent line, a line that just touches
a particular point. The slope of a curve at a particular point is defined as the
slope of the tangent to that point. For example, y=x 2 has a slope of 4 at x =2
because the slope of the tangent line to that point is equal 4.

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The derivative of a function is defined as the slope of this tangent line. Even
though the tangent line only touches a single point at the point of tangency,
it can be approximately by a line that goes through two points. This is known
as a secant line. If the two points that the secant line goes through are close
together, then the secant line closely resembles the tangent line, and, as a
result its slope is also very similar:

The advantage of using a secant line is that its slope can be calculated
directly. Consider the two points on the graph (x, f(x)) and (x+∆x, f(x+∆x)),
where ∆x is a small number. As before, the slope of the line passing through
these two points can be calculated with the formula slope = ∆y/∆x. This gives

Slope = f(x+∆x) – f(x) / ∆x

As ∆x gets closer and closer to 0, the slope of the secant line gets closer and
closer to the slope of the tangent line. This is formally written as

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The above expression means as x gets closer and closer to 0, the slope of the
secant line gets closer and closer to a certain value. The value that is being
approached is the derivative of f(x); this can be written as f’(x). If y = f(x),
the derivative can also be written as dy/dx, with d representing an
infinitesimal change. For example, dx represents an infinitesimal change in
x. In summary, if y = f(x), then the derivative of f(x) is

provided such a limit exists. Differentiating a function using the above

definition is known as differentiation from first principles. Here is a proof,
using differentiation from first principles, that the derivative of y = x 2 is 2x.

As ∆x approaches 0, 2x+∆x approaches 2x. Therefore, dy/dx = 2x. This proof

can be generalized to show that if a and n are constants.

This is known as the power rule. For example, .

However, many other functions cannot be differentiated as easily as
polynomial functions, meaning that sometimes further techniques are needed
to find the derivative of a function. These techniques include the chain rule,
product rule, and quotient rule. Other functions cannot be differentiated at
all, giving rise to the concept of differentiability.

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 LEARNING ACTIVITY

Differentiate the function y = x3 - 2x. Show your complete

solution.

 MODULE SUMMARY

In module I, you have learned the different kinds of functions, concept

of continuity, limits, derivative and slope.

There are four lessons in module I. Lesson 1 discussed the different

kind of functions and its concept.

Lesson 2 deals with the continuity and limits. Lesson 3 discussed what
is derivative and how it is use and Lesson 4 deals with slope and how it is
related to derivative.

Congratulations! You have just studied Module I. now you are ready to
evaluate how much you have benefited from your reading by answering the
summative test. Good Luck!!!

 SUMMATIVE TEST

Differentiate the following functions. Show step by step solution and

Indicate your final answer.

1. X = 1/t
2. y = 4x2 – 3x – 2
3. y = (x+2) ½

Module I