AP Calculus AB

Antiderivatives,
Differential Equations,
and Slope Fields

Review
Consider the equation y x

dy
Find
2x
dx

Solution

Antiderivatives
What is an inverse operation?
Examples include:
Addition and subtraction
Multiplication and division
Exponents and logarithms

Antiderivatives
Differentiation also has an inverse

antidefferentiation

Antiderivatives
Consider the function
4
by f x 5x .

whose derivative is given

What is F x ? F x x
We say that

Solution

F x is an antiderivative of f x .

Antiderivatives

Notice that we say F x is an antiderivative and

not the antiderivative. Why?

Since F x is an antiderivative of
say that F ' x f x .
If

f x , we can

G x x 3 and H x x 2, find
5

g x and h x .

Differential Equations
dy
Recall the earlier equation
2 x.
dx
This is called a differential equation and could
also be written as dy 2 xdx .
We can think of solving a differential equation
as being similar to solving any other equation.

Differential Equations
Trying to find y as a function of x
Can only find indefinite solutions

Differential Equations
There are two basic steps to follow:
1. Isolate the differential
2. Invert both sidesin other words, find
the antiderivative

Differential Equations
Since we are only finding indefinite
solutions, we must indicate the ambiguity
of the constant.
Normally, this is done through using a
letter to represent any constant.
Generally, we use C.

Differential Equations
dy
Solve
2x
dx

y x2 C

Solution

Slope Fields
Consider the following:
HippoCampus

Slope Fields
A slope field shows the general flow of a
differential equations solution.
Often, slope fields are used in lieu of
actually solving differential equations.

Slope Fields
To construct a slope field, start with a differential
equation. For simplicitys sake well use
Slope
dy
2Fields
xdx
Rather than solving the differential equation,
well construct a slope field
Pick points in the coordinate plane
Plug in the x and y values
The result is the slope of the tangent line at that
point

Slope Fields
Notice that since there is no y in our equation,
horizontal rows all contain parallel segments.
The same would be true for vertical columns if
there were no x.

dy
x y.
Construct a slope field for
dx