Slope of a Curve

Recall from the tangent line and limit, we showed that a limit could be used
to find a tangent line to a curve. Figure below illustrates how to define a
tangent to a curve y=f(x).
y

P
Q

The slope mPQ of the secant line through P and Q can be computed as
f ( x)  f ( x0 )
mPQ 
x  x0
 Slope of a Curve
If x approaches x0, then the point Q will move along the curve and approach the
point P. The secant line through P and Q approaches a limiting position as
x  x0 , a position which is considered as the position for a tangent line.
Hence, the slope of the tangent line can be define as

f ( x)  f ( x0 )
mtangent  lim (1)
x  x0 x  x0
provided that the limit exists. Which gives the following definition for the
equation of the tangent line.

Definition 1 Suppose that x0 is in the domain of the function f . The tangent line to
the curve y=f(x) at the point P(x0,f(x0)) is the line having the equation

y  f ( x0 )  mtangent ( x  x0 )
where the slope is as given in (1).
 Slope of a Curve
3
Example 1 Find the slope of y  at the point (3,1)
x
The slope of the curve at the point (3,1) can be obtained as followings
3
1
f (3  h)  f (3) 3  h
mtangent  lim  lim
h 0 h h 0 h
h
 lim
h 0 h(3  h)

1
 lim
h 0 (3  h)

1

3

Hence, the slope of the curve at the point (3,1) is equal to 1

3
 Slope of a Curve
Example 2 Let y  x  2x 2 be a function for a curve, find the followings:

(a) The slope of the curve at the point (1,-1)

(b) The equation for the tangent line at the point (1,-1)

(a) The slope of the curve at the point (1,-1) is

f (1  h)  f (1) (1  h)  2(1  h) 2  (1)

lim  lim
h 0 h h 0 h
 3h  2h 2
 lim
h 0 h
 lim (3  2h)
h 0

 3

Hence, the slope of the curve at the point (1,-1) is equal to -3

 Slope of a Curve
Example 2 (continue)
(b) The equation for the tangent line at the point (1,-1)

The equation of the tangent line passing through the point (1,-1) has
the slope of -3. Hence we obtain the equation for the tangent
line as

y 1  3( x 1) or y  3x  2

 Derivatives
1. Definition of the Derivative Function
In the last section, we showed that the limit
f ( x0  h)  f ( x0 )
lim
h 0 h

is the slope of the tangent line to the curve y = f(x) at x = x0

This limit quantity can be viewed as the rate of change of y with

respect to x at x = x0.

Since this limit is so important, it has a special notation:

f ( x0  h)  f ( x0 )
f ( x0 )  lim (1)
h 0 h

The notation f  is read “f prime” representing the slope of the tangent line
y = f(x) at x = x0 or the instantaneous rate of change of y with respect to x
at x = x0.
 Derivatives
1. Definition of the Derivative Function (continue)
If we replace x0 by x in (1) from the last page, we have the following
definition for the derivative of a function
Definition 1 The derivative of f with respect to x can be defined as
f ( x  h)  f ( x )
f ( x)  lim (2)
h0 h
provided that the limit exists. The domain of f is the same as the domain of f
dy df
Other notations of the derivatives are or .
dx dx

Example 1 Find the derivative of f ( x)  5 x  3x  1

2

From (2), we have

f ( x  h)  f ( x ) 10 xh  5h 2  3h
f ( x)  lim  lim
h 0 h h 0 h
 lim (10 x  5h  3)
h 0

 10 x  3
 Derivatives
1. Definition of the Derivative Function (continue)
Example 2 Let f ( x)  x  1 , find f (3)

f (3  h)  f (3)
f (3)  lim
h 0 h
(3  h )  1  3  1
 lim
h 0 h
 h4 2 h4 2
 lim    
h 0
 h h4 2

 ( h  4)  4 
 lim  
h 0
h h4 2
 h 
 lim  
h 0
h h4 2
 1 
 lim  
h 0
 h4 2
1

4
 Derivatives
1. Definition of the Derivative Function (continue)
Example 3 Let f ( x)  2 x 2  3x  2, find

(a) The derivative of f at x

(b) The derivative of f at x=2
f ( x  h)  f ( x )
(a) f ( x)  lim
h 0 h
[2( x  h) 2  3( x  h)  2]  [2 x 2  3 x  2]
 lim
h 0 h
4 xh  2h 2  3h
 lim
h 0 h
 lim (4 x  2h  3)
h 0

 4x  3

(b) From (a) we have f ( x)  4x - 3.

Hence, f (2)  4(2)  3  5.
 Derivative
2. Definition of Differentiable
Definition 2 A function f is said to be differentiable at x0 . If the limit
f ( x0  h)  f ( x0 )
f ( x0 )  lim
h 0 h (3)
exists. If the limit does not exist, then f is not differentiable.

Example 1 Show that |x| is not differentiable at x = 0.

By (3), we have
f (0  h)  f (0) f (h)  f (0) |h||0| |h|
f (0)  lim  lim  lim  lim
h 0 h h 0 h h 0 h h 0 h

But |h|  1, h  0

h   1, h0

|h| |h|
Hence, lim  1 and lim 1
x 0  h x 0 h
Since the one-sided limits are not equal, the limit in (3) does not exist,
therefore, f is not differentiable