- Difficulty
- Introductory
- Suggested time
- 3 min
- Marks
- 2
Exponential and trigonometric functions practice question 4
Let . Find .
Which derivatives do and have? Get those right first, then think about the exact values of and at .
and .
At , and , so and .
A fraction, or a decimal to two decimal places.
Theory UBC Math 100 §4.2CLP-1 §2.8Key results
Worked solution
Strategy
Differentiate term by term with the derivatives of tan and sec, then evaluate at π/6 using cos(π/6) = √3/2 and sin(π/6) = 1/2.
Working
tan x differentiates to sec² x, and sec x to sec x tan x.
sec is one over cos, and tan is sin over cos.
The two square roots multiply to 3.
Answer
The answer is eight thirds.
Check
Around π/6 ≈ 0.524, f goes from about −0.587 at 0.52 to about −0.560 at 0.53, a slope of about 2.67.
Where this goes wrong
Writing the derivative of tan x as sec x instead of sec² x, which gives 2√3 − 4/3. The square matters: at π/6 it turns 2/√3 into 4/3.
Leans on
Values of sin and cos at π/6, from Functions, graphs and inverses
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