11.4: Derivatives

Now that we know some elementary functions, we seek their derivatives. We will not spend time exploring the appropriate limits in any rigorous way. We are only interested in the results. We provide these in Table $\PageIndex{1}$. We expect that you know the meaning of the derivative and all of the usual rules, such as the product and quotient rules.

Table $\PageIndex{1}$: Table of Common Derivatives ($a$ is a constant).

Function	Derivative
$a$	0
$x^{n}$	$n x^{n-1}$
$e^{a x}$	$a e^{a x}$
$\ln a x$	$\frac{1}{x}$
$\sin a x$	$a \cos a x$
$\cos a x$	$-a \sin a x$
$\tan a x$	$a \sec ^{2} a x$
$\csc a x$	$-a \csc a x \cot a x$
$\sec a x$	$a \sec a x \tan a x$
$\cot a x$	$-a \csc ^{2} a x$
$\sinh a x$	$a \cosh a x$
$\cosh a x$	$a \sinh a x$
$\tanh a x$	$a \operatorname{sech}^{2} a x$
$\operatorname{csch} a x$	$-a \operatorname{csch} a x \operatorname{coth} a x$
$\operatorname{sech} a x$	$-a \operatorname{sech} a x \tanh a x$
$\operatorname{coth} a x$	$-a \operatorname{csch}^{2} a x$

Also, you should be familiar with the Chain Rule. Recall that this rule tells us that if we have a composition of functions, such as the elementary functions above, then we can compute the derivative of the composite function. Namely, if $h(x)=f(g(x))$, then 

$$\frac{d h}{d x}=\frac{d}{d x}(f(g(x)))=\left.\frac{d f}{d g}\right|_{g(x)} \frac{d g}{d x}=f^{\prime}(g(x)) g^{\prime}(x) .\label{eq:1}$$

Example $\PageIndex{1}$

Differentiate $H(x)=5 \cos \left(\pi \tanh 2 x^{2}\right)$.

Solution

This is a composition of three functions, $H(x)=f(g(h(x)))$, where $f(x)=$ $5 \cos x, g(x)=\pi \tanh x$, and $h(x)=2 x^{2}$. Then the derivative becomes

$$\begin{align} H^{\prime}(x)&=5\left(-\sin \left(\pi \tanh 2 x^{2}\right)\right) \frac{d}{d x}\left(\left(\pi \tanh 2 x^{2}\right)\right)\nonumber \\  &=-5 \pi \sin \left(\pi \tanh 2 x^{2}\right) \operatorname{sech}^{2} 2 x^{2} \frac{d}{d x}\left(2 x^{2}\right)\nonumber \\ &=-20 \pi x \sin \left(\pi \tanh 2 x^{2}\right) \operatorname{sech}^{2} 2 x^{2} .\label{eq:2} \end{align}$$