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General Discussion => Other Discussions => Math and Science => Topic started by: Munchor on March 08, 2011, 04:40:13 pm

Title: Derivatives
Post by: Munchor on March 08, 2011, 04:40:13 pm

Can any of you link me to a good text on derivatives or try to teach me them?

My parents don't want to teach me since they say I'm only gonna learn them next year, but I can't wait :P

Thanks.

Title: Re: Derivatives
Post by: AngelFish on March 08, 2011, 04:45:03 pm

Here's a best and most technically accurate source you're likely to find, although it may be difficult to understand:

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Derivative.html (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Derivative.html)

The Wikipedia article is easier to understand, but it may not be as accurate:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative)

Title: Re: Derivatives
Post by: Scipi on March 08, 2011, 04:46:17 pm

Ok, derivatives are basically the slope of any point in a function. So for like y=5x, the slope is 5 the entire way across. But what about 5x^2? There as you can see, the slope for every point is different. This is how you do derivatives. For every element, take the exponent of x, multiply it by the coefficient, then subtract one to the exponent. 5x^2 -> 10x(^1). 10x -> 10(x^0), 10 -> 0 (note if you take the derivative of an element with x^0, it goes to 0). Hope that explains it. :D

edit: Ninja'd

Title: Re: Derivatives
Post by: Munchor on March 08, 2011, 04:47:00 pm

It seems like a derivative is the comparison of the m of a function (as in y=mx+b) of one variable f(x) and another one f(a).

Thanks.