Hallowe’en in New England, I

Example
Differentiate y  x(x  1)(x2  1)

Solution: Although this problem could be easily done by

multiplying out, let’s introduce a technique which can be
used when the expression is a lot more complicated.

1 Take the ln of both sides. ln y  ln x ( x  1)( x 2

 1)

ln y  ln x(x  1)(x2  1)
2 Expand.
ln y  ln x  ln(x  1)  ln(x2  1)
3 Differentiate both
sides implicitly for ln y ln y  ln x  ln(x  1)  ln(x2  1)
y 1 1 2x
   2
y x x 1 x 1
 Example y 1
 
1 2x
 2
y x x 1 x 1

4. Solve for y ′.  1 1 2x 
y  y   2 
 x x 1 x 1 

5. Substitute y  x(x  1)(x2  1) in 4, and simplify.

1 2x 
y  xx  1(x  1) 
1
 2
 2 
 x x 1 x 1

y    
 
 xx  1(x 2  1) xx  1(x 2  1) 2x xx  1(x 2  1)
 2
1 
 x x 1 x 
 
y  x  1(x  1)  x(x  1)  2x x x  1
2 2

Example
Continue to simplify…

y  x  1(x 2  1)  x(x 2  1)  2x x x  1 
 
y  x  x  x  1  x  x  2x  2x
3 2 3 3 2

y  4x 3  3x 2  2x  1
Check that the derivative is correct:
Multiply out the original, take the derivative.

y  x( x  1)( x 2  1)

 
y  x  x ( x  1)  x  x  x  x
2 2 4 3 2

y  4 x 3  3x 2  2 x  1

Remember this example was for demonstration.

Logarithmic differentiation problems are never this simple.
Consider the function y = xx.

Not a power function, nor an

exponential function.
This is the graph: domain x > 0

What is that minimum point?

Recall: to find a minimum, we need to find the first derivative,

find the critical numbers and use either the First Derivative Test
or the Second Derivative Test to determine the extrema.
To find the derivative of y = xx , we will take the ln of
both sides first and then expand.
ln y  ln x x

ln y  x ln x
Differentiate both sides implicitly.
ln y  x ln x
1 1
y   x  ln x  1
y x
y
 1  ln x
y
y   y 1  ln x   x x 1  ln x 
To find the critical numbers, set y′ = 0 and solve for x.
y  x 1  ln x 
x y

0  x x 1  ln x 
0  1  ln x
 1  ln x x

1 1
e x e   .367...
1

e
Now test x = 0.1 in y′, y′(0.1) = -1.034 < 0

and x = 0.5 in y′, y′(0.5) = 0.216 > 0

Thus, the minimum point occurs at x = 1/e or about 0.37
 Example y=xsinx
sin x
ln y=ln x
d ln y d sin x ln x
ln y=sin x ln x → dx

dx
Differentiating both sides implicitly.

→
d lny dy 1 1 dy sin x
= sin x +ln x cos x   ln x cos x
dy dx x y dx x
dy s in x
 y(  ln x c o s x )
dx x
dy s in x s i n x
 x (  ln x c o s x )
dx x
 Example x 3 dy
If y=3 .x ., Find .
dx
ln y  ln 3 x  ln 3  ln x  x ln 3  3 ln x
x 3 x 3

Differentiating both sides implicitly.

1 dy d (ln 3) dx d (ln x ) 3 3
x  ln 3  3  0  ln 3   ln 3 
y dx dx dx dx x x

dy 3 3
 y (ln 3  )  3 .x (ln 3  )
x 3

dx x x
Example If y= xlnx ., Find dy .
dx
ln y  ln x ln x
 ln x.ln x  (ln x) 2

d (ln y ) d (ln x ) 2

dx dx
2
1 dy d (ln x ) d (ln x ) 1
  2 ln x
y dx d (ln x ) dx x

d y ln x 2 ln x
= x
d x x
Two rules for differentiating logarithmic functions:
I: Derivative of ln x
d 1
dx
ln x 
x
x  0 
II: The Chain Rule for Log Functions

d f(x)
ln f(x)   f ( x)  0 
dx f(x)
• Expand a logarithm before taking the derivative;

• Take the natural log (ln) of both sides of an equation,

• Rewrite, and then take the derivative implicitly.
π