Interpretations of the Derivative

Guided Notes for this lecture

In this section we need to consider what the derivative is telling us. We can gain a lot of valuable information from the derivative function.

The units of the derivative help us further understand what the derivative is telling us.

Now that we know how to approximate the instantaneous rate of change, and what it means, we can use to approximate other values of our function. This powerful process allows us to predict how a function behaves at various points.

At the end of this section you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. What does the derivative tell us?
2. WHow can we use the derivative to predict values on our function?
3. How do we use units to help us understadn what the derivative is telling us?

Check Your Understanding
You should try these problems before reviewing the solutions to to these non-graded practice problems.