Study Notes Details

GCSE Maths

Differentiate y = 3x^4 + 6x^3

Question:

Differentiate-y-3x4-6x3

Methods:

There are two simple steps we can use to be able to differentiate in a question like this. The first step is to multiply the number in the power by the number in front of the variable – in this case the β€˜x’. Looking at the first term we would multiply the β€˜4’ (in the power) by the β€˜3’ (in front of the x) to get 12. The second step is to subtract one from the number in the power to get the new power. So again, looking at the first term, we would subtract 1 from β€˜4’ to get the new power which is 3. Therefore, differentiating the first term gives us 12x^3. We can then repeat these two steps for the next term in the equation (6x^3) to give us 18x^2.

Answer:

We use the notation dy/dx to indicate that we have differentiated the equation, so our final answer is dy/dx = 12x^3 + 18x^2

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