What is a derivative and how are they used?
A derivative is a function that tells us the gradient of a curve at any point. Say you have a function like f(x)=x3+x2 and you want to know when the function is stationary, i.e. has a gradient of zero. We first take the derivative of f(x). This derivative function which comes to be: f'(x)=3x2+2x can be used to find the values of x for when the gradient is zero by setting this derivative to be equal to zero and then solving.In conclusion, a derivative function can be thought of as a gradient function, and it used to find specific values of x for which the gradient of the initial function is equal to some constant that is required, most commonly zero
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Related Maths A Level answers
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