Derivatives Practice Questions – Math Lessons

Hi everyone and welcome to MathSux! In this weeks post, we will venture into Calculus for the first time! I won’t get too much into the nitty gritty explanation of what derivative are here, but instead will provide a nice overview of Derivatives Practice Questions. This post includes everything you need to know about finding the derivatives of a function including the Power Rule, Product Rule, Quotient Rule, and the Chain Rule. Below you will see examples, a Derivative Rules Cheat Sheet, and of course practice questions! I hope these quick examples help in the classroom or for that test coming up! Let me know if it helps and you want more Calculus lessons. Happy Calculating!

What is a Derivative?

We use the derivative to find the rate of change of a function with respect to a variable. You can find out more about what a derivative is and its proper notation here at mathisfun.com. Read on below for a derivative rules cheat sheet, examples, and practice problems!

Derivative Rules Cheat Sheet:

Power Rule:

The power rule is used for finding the derivative of functions that contain variables with real exponents. Note that the derivative of any lone constant number is zero.

Product Rule:

The product rule is used to find the derivative of two functions that are being multiplied together.

Quotient Rule:

Applying the quotient rule, will find the derivative of any two functions set up as a ratio. Be sure to notice any numbers or variables in the denominator that can be brought to the numerator (if that’s the case, can use the more friendly power rule).

Chain Rule:

The chain rule allows us to find the derivative of nested functions. This is great for trigonometric functions and entire functions that are raised to an exponent.