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How the slope of a curved line at a point can be found?
The slope of a curved line at a point is the slope of the tangent to the curve at that point. If you know the equation of the curve and the curve is well behaved, you can find the derivative of the equation of the curve. The value of the derivative, at the point in question, is the slope of the curved line at that point.
What does the derivative formula mean?
The derivative of a curve is basically the slope of the curve. If we say, for example, that if y = 2x, the derivative is 2, that means that at any point the line has this slope. If we say that for the function y = x2, the derivative is 2x, that means that at any point "x", the slope is twice the value of "x".
Why does taking the derivative of a function give you the slope of the tangent?
Why: Because that's what the derivative means, the way it is defined - the slope of the curve at any point of the line.
How to find the slope to an equation?
If it is the equation for a line, then it can be rearranged into the format y = mx + b, where m is the slope of the line, and b is the point where the line intercepts the y-axis.If it is not for a straight line, then the slope is changing with x, and the derivative of the function would find the slope at a particular x.
How do you trace a curve in differential calculus?
To trace a curve using differential calculus, you use the fact that the first derivative of the function is the slope of the curve, and the second derivative is the slope of the first derivative. What this means is that the zeros (roots) of the first derivative give the extrema (max or min) or an inflection point of the function. Evaluating the first derivative function at either side of the zero will tell you whether it is a min/max or inflection point (i.e. if the first derivative is negative on the left of the zero and positive on the right, then the curve has a negative slope, then a min, then a positive slope). The second derivative will tell you if the curve is concave up or concave down by evaluating if the second derivative function is positive or negative before and after extrema.
