Question

Derivatives... ANY kind of help. PLEASE?

Answer 1

Welcome to Open Study! :) Can you post a specific question? :)

Answer 2

we need at least an example problem to work with ^^;

Answer 3

Find the derivative of the function: (pi*cos(t))

Answer 4

since pi is a constant you can take it out and just take the derivative of cos(t)...do you know how to do that?

Answer 5

no, ): I'm terrible in math, and my teacher moves so fast. If you could explain I'd be thankful!

Answer 6

derivative of cos(t) is -sin(t)

Answer 7

What about y= x^2- (1/2)cosx

Answer 8

Do you know the rule for the derivative of \(\Large x^2\)? There's a standard rule for that, probably one of the first ones you learned.

Answer 9

Haha it's bad to think I learned something because my teacher moves SO fast and gets mad when we ask questions /:

Answer 10

The when you have a sum or difference, you just take the derivative of each term, and add/subtract them.

The only other rule you need is that if you have a constant times something, the derivative is the constant times the derivative of the "something", e.g.:
\[\dfrac{ d }{ dy }C\cdot f(x)=C\cdot \dfrac{ d }{ dy }f(x)\]

Answer 11

Well, that's a shame if the teacher is moving fast, but then maybe just sit down with your textbook and review it after class, fill in what you didn't understand in your notes, and try the homework problems.

All you're doing here is applying some formulas, so even if he moves fast, you just need to get the formulas down and practice them a bit. :)

Answer 12

Thank y'all!