Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
228
DERIVATIVE
If y is a function of x, we usually write:
y = y (x).
If y is plotted against x, we can think about the function as a curve. The
slope of the curve at any given value of x is defined as:
It can be easily verified that:
dx/dx = 1,
dx
2
/dx = 2x,
dx
3
/dx = 3x
2
,
dx
n
/dx = nx
n-1
.
by power series expansion, e,g,
and
higher order terms in