DERIVATIVES
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DERIVATIVES
To answer your question simply, a derivative is a function that
represents the slope of the tangent for any given value of x in the
function f(x). For example the derivative of sin(x) = -cos(x), by
simple inspection you may see how this is true. When the slope of
the tangent is 0 (ie. cos(x)= pi/2) the function is either at a
local max or min or does not exist, in the examples case I think it
is at a local min. But I'm only in grade 12 and don't know calculus
overly well. Hopefully this helped somewhat.