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20 Power Rule

“I’ve got the power!” –Snap (German band)

If you apply the definition of the derivative to several functions, you’ll see:

ddxx00ddxx11ddxx22xddxx33x2ddxx44x3

See the pattern?

ddxxn=nxn1

As we’ll see in the next section, this even works for non-integers. The key is to multiply by the exponent, then decrease the exponent by one.

The next rules say that constant multiples and addition work nicely.

ddxcf(x)=cf(x)

ddx[f(x)+g(x)]=f(x)+g(x)

The key is you can just worry about the derivative of each piece of a sum separately. Constant multiples “come along for the ride”. With only these three rules, you can now take the derivative of any polynomial. Check it out.

Power
Find the following derivatives.

  1. ddx3x2

    To do this one, we use the power rule on the x2 part, and get 2x. However, we are also multiplying by 3, so the answer is multiplied by 3 as well. Hence the answer is 3(2x)=6x.

  2. ddxx3+x

    By the power rule, we find ddxx3=3x2, and ddxx is ddxx1 which becomes 1x0 by the power rule, which is 1. By the addition rule, we have ddxx3+x=3x2+1.

  3. ddx2x3+5

    You take the derivative of x3 and you have 3x2. Times by 2, that leaves 6x2. Okay, about the five? It is tempting to leave the five put, but actually ddx5=0. Why? Well, it’s a constant, so it does not affect the slope. Hence we get 6x2.

More power rule examples

Note that the power rule works with fractional and negative exponents as well! Here are some examples.

Fractional

Find ddxx3/2.

To apply the power rule in this case, we need to first multiply by the exponent (3/2), then subtract one from the exponent 3/21=1/2. Then we have

ddxx3/2=32x1/2=32x1/2

Negative

Find ddx7x2.

In this problem, we just worry about the x2 to start with. We multiply by the exponent (2), and then subtract one from that to get 21=3. Then we have

ddx7x2=7(2x3)=14x3

Sometimes there are hidden fractional or negative exponents. Don’t let them fool you, they are just like the examples above. Just remember these rules:

1xn=xn     xnm=xmn=xn/m

Let’s see some examples.

Roots

Find

  1. ddxx

    This problem is much easier if we can rewrite the x. This is the same thing as x1/2, and hence we have

    ddxx=ddxx1/2=12x1/21=12x1/2.

  2. ddx5x3

    To solve this, it really helps to rewrite x3 as x1/3. Once you do that, this prolem is just the power rule and constant multiple rule:

    ddx5x3=5x1/3=5(13)x1/31=53x2/3.

  3. ddxx35+x2+7

    Focus on the easy parts first: we know ddxx2=2x, and we know that ddx7=0. So we just need to figure out the ddxx35. What is this? Well, we can rewrite this as ddxx3/5. So now it is just the power rule, and we multiply by 3/5 and subtract to get 2/5. Hence ddxx3/5=35x2/5. Putting it all together:

    ddxx35+x2+7=35x2/5+2x.

Powers of x in the denominator

  1. ddx1x

    We can rewrite ddx1x=ddx1x1 as ddxx1. Now we apply the power rule:

    ddx1x=ddxx1=1x2.

  2. ddx4x2

    We can think of 4 as just a constant out front, and hence we want ddx4(1x2). We can then rewrite 1x2 as x2. And we want ddx4(x2). Using the power rule, we multiply by 2 and subtract one, and we have

    ddx4x2=ddx4x2=8x3.

  3. ddx1x

    This combines the fractional and denominator stuff. We first rewrite x as x1/2:

    ddx1x=ddx1x1/2.

    We then rewrite as a negative fractional exponent.

    ddx1x=ddxx1/2

    Finally, we use the power rule.

    ddx1x=12x3/2.

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Informal Calculus Copyright © by Tyler Seacrest is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.