Question

Find the slope of the tangent at the given value of x?

`y = (1/x^2) at x = 1`

Answer 1

`-2`

Explanation:

You need to start by differentiating.

`y = x^-2`

`y= -2x^-3`

`y =-2/x^3`

The derivative represents the slope of the tangent at any given point on the curve. Therefore, substituting our point `x = a` into the derivative will give the slope of the tangent.

The slope at the tangent at `x = 1` is `m = -2/1^3 = -2`

Hopefully this helps!