The Chain Rule
In earlier sections, we learned how to take the derivatives of sums, differences, products and quotients of two functions. These operations form four of the basic operations we can perform on functions. In this section, we complete derivatives on function operations by learning how to differentiate functions that can be written as a composition.
We’ll start by reviewing compositions and then present the Chain Rule for Derivatives. This rule will allow us to compute derivatives of compositions. Finally, we’ll combine several derivative rules to differentiate functions involving more than one operation on functions.
Read in Section 11.7
- What is a composition of two functions?
- How do you write a function as a composition of two functions?
- How do you apply the chain rule to take a derivative?
- How do you combine derivative rules to take more complicated derivatives?
- Handout: Product Rule with Chain Rule Example
- Handout: Exponential Derivatives Example
- Handout: Quotient Rule with Exponentials
- Handout: Log Derivative Example
Section 11.7 Workbook (PDF) – 9/4/19
Watch Video Playlist
