3.

1 Derivatives
Great Sand Dunes National Monument, Colorado
Photo by Vickie Kelly, 2003 Greg Kelly, Hanford High School, Richland, Washington
 f  a  h  f  a 
lim is called the derivative of f at a.
h 0 h

f  x  h  f  x
We write: f   x   lim
h 0 h
“The derivative of f with respect to x is …”

There are many ways to write the derivative of y  f  x


f  x “f prime x” or “the derivative of f with respect
to x”

y “y prime”

dy “the derivative of y with

“dee why dee ecks” or
dx respect to x”

df “the derivative of f with

“dee eff dee ecks” or
dx respect to x”

d
f  x  “dee dee ecks uv eff uv ecks” or “the derivative
dx of f of x”
( d dx of f of x )

dx does not mean d times x !

dy does not mean d times y !


 dy
does not mean dy  dx !
dx
(except when it is convenient to think of it as division.)

df
does not mean df  dx !
dx
(except when it is convenient to think of it as division.)


d d
f  x  does not mean times f  x  !
dx dx
(except when it is convenient to treat it that way.)


In the future, all will become clear. 
 y  f  x

The derivative
is the slope of
the original The derivative is defined at the end points
function. of a function on a closed interval.

y  f  x

 y  x 3
2

y  lim
 x  h
2
3 x 3  2

h 0 h

x  2 xh  h  x
2 2 2
y  lim
h 0 h
0
y  lim 2 x  h
h 0

y  2 x

A function is differentiable if it has a
derivative everywhere in its domain. It
must be continuous and smooth.
Functions on closed intervals must have
one-sided derivatives defined at the end
points.