Calculus All-in-One For Dummies (+ Chapter Quizzes Online)

Chapter 13

More Differentiation Problems: Going Off on a Tangent

IN THIS CHAPTER

Tangling with tangents

Negotiating normals

Lining up for linear approximations

Profiting from business and economics problems

Doing in your head

In this chapter, you see three more applications of differentiation: tangent and normal line problems, linear approximation problems, and economics problems. The common thread tying these problems together is the idea of a line tangent to a curve — which should come as no surprise since the meaning of the derivative of a curve is the slope of the tangent line. The problems in this chapter are all “practical” applications of differentiation in a sense, but some of them are — to be honest — much more likely to be found in a math book than in the real world. But at the other end of the spectrum, you encounter problems here like the economics problem of finding maximum ...