Week 7: The derivative as a rate of change, derivatives of trigonometric functions, chain rule

Thomas Calculus, Early Transcendentals, (13th edition)

Sec 3.4 The Derivative as a Rate of Change (pages: 146 - 155)

In this section we study further applications in which derivatives model the rates at which things change. It is natural to think of a quantity changing with respect to time, but other variables can be treated in the same way. For example, an economist may want to study how the cost of producing steel varies with the number of tons produced, or an engineer may want to know how the power output of a generator varies with its temperature.

Sec 3.5 Derivatives of Trigonometric Functions (pages: 156 - 162)

Many phenomena of nature are approximately periodic (electromagnetic fields, heart rhythms, tides, weather). The derivatives of sines and cosines play a key role in describing periodic changes. This section shows how to differentiate the six basic trigonometric functions.

Sec 3.6 The Chain Rule (pages: 163 - 171)

We develop the chain rule in this section.