What is meant by the term differentiation?

1 Answer
Mar 25, 2018

Differentiation is the process by which you find the rate of change of a variable with respect to another.

Explanation:

A good example of this is the position-time function #x(t)# as when you differentiate this function you will be able to to know the value of the instantaneous velocity #dx/dt# at a given time #t# and same goes for the velocity-time function #v(t)# as you will be able to calculate the value of the instantaneous acceleration #dv/dt# at a given time #t#

Also, it's used to calculate the slope of a non-linear equation as #y=x^3# as the slope depends on #x# and not a constant like in linear equations as #y=mx+c# in which the slope will be equal to #m#

I hope this was helpful