Derivative of a trig. function

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frosty8688
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1. Find the derivative of the function using the power rule or product rule



2. sinθ/2 + c/θ



3. I tried to do plus or minus the √1-cosθ/2
 
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Your question is ambiguous. Please use parentheses. It looks like that want to find the derivative of
[tex]\frac{\sin \theta}{2} + \frac{c}{\theta}[/tex]
 
There is no need to plus or minus the √1-cosθ/2, simply find the derivative of sin θ and 1/θ w.r.t θ (I suppose that's what you are asked.) And what about c? How is it defined in the question?
 
Here's what I have (cosθ/2) + (c/θ). c is a variable.
 
Last edited:
The c probably stands for some constant.
 
frosty8688 said:
Here's what I have (cosθ/2) + (c/θ). c is a variable.
If c is a constant, and the above is your solution attempt, then you have to do something with the 2nd term (ie. the derivative of c/θ isn't c/θ).
 
The solution would be (cosθ/2).
 
frosty8688 said:
The solution would be (cosθ/2).

No, how do you get this? What's the derivative of 1/θ?
 
The derivative of a constant is 0.
 
frosty8688 said:
The solution would be (cosθ/2).
Sorry, that's wrong. If the original problem was this:
[tex]\frac{\sin \theta}{2} + c[/tex]
(with c as a constant), then your answer would be right. But the 2nd term has a θ in the denominator. What do we do?
 
It would be (cosθ/2 - c/θ^2)
 
frosty8688 said:
It would be (cosθ/2 - c/θ^2)

Looks good.