- Difficulty
- Standard
- Suggested time
- 4 min
- Marks
- 2
Exponential and trigonometric functions practice question 22
A student finds for the function below as shown. Find the first line that is wrong.
Check the derivative of each trigonometric function against the table before checking the algebra.
What is ?
Theory UBC Math 100 §4.2CLP-1 §2.8Key results
Corrected working
Strategy
Product rule, with the derivative of cos x carrying its minus sign.
Working
u′v + uv′ with u = x and v = cos x; the derivative of cos is minus sin.
cos(π/2) = 0 and sin(π/2) = 1.
Answer
The answer is y prime at pi over 2 equals negative pi over 2.
Check
Near π/2, cos x ≈ π/2 − x, so y = x cos x ≈ (π/2)(π/2 − x), which falls with slope −π/2.
Where this goes wrong
Writing the derivative of cos x as sin x. The minus sign belongs to the derivative of cosine, and here it decides the sign of the whole answer.
Leans on
The product rule, from Differentiation rules
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