Differentiating Exponentials
Differentiating exponentials usually requires the use of the chain rule. In the case of e to the x differentiating does not change the function, i.e. y and dy/dx are the same expression. The graph below shows the graph of where , sometimes known as Euler’s number, is given by … See more on this type of graph. The number is special because everywhere on this graph, the gradient is the same as the -coordinate.
The derivative of , where is a constant, is , i.e.:
For , this says that at each point on the graph of , the gradient matches that of the coordinate:
Be careful when differentiating multiples of these functions. The power and multiple must be multiplied together. See the Examples. The StudyWell Differentiation eGuide has lots more on differentiation including exam style questions. To see how we find these derivatives, follow the process for differentiating below.
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Differentiating
At higher level in mathematics, you may need to differentiate more complicated exponential functions. Suppose , where and are constants, the derivative is given by
We can show this by letting , logging both sides first to get using a log rule then differentiating implicitly: since is a constant. It follows that . See Example 4. This applies for all positive and all . If we choose the exponential constant, then this tells us that . Furthermore, if then we have .
Differentiating
As higher levels, you should know that the derivative of is:
We can show this using differentiation from first principles and the log rules:
At this point we make a change of variables. Let so that as . It follows that
Note that we commute the multiplication by a factor of and logging with the limit (see more on limits). Also note that too, where is a constant. This is because we can write as using the log rules. Since is also a constant for constant it differentiates to 0. See example 5.
Examples
Videos
A simple example of evaluating and differentiating a basic exponential function.
A demonstration of how to find the equation of a tangent to an exponential curve.