Implicit differentiation to find the slope

fishingspree2
Messages
138
Reaction score
0

Homework Statement



(x - h)^2 + (y - k)^2 = r^2
where h,k and r are constants

The Attempt at a Solution



<br /> \begin{array}{l}<br /> \frac{d}{{dx}}\left[ {(x - h)^2 + (y - k)^2 } \right] = \frac{d}{{dx}}r^2 \\ <br /> 2(x - h) + 2\frac{{dy}}{{dx}}(y - k) = 0 \\ <br /> \Rightarrow \frac{{dy}}{{dx}} = - \frac{{(x - h)}}{{(y - k)}} \\ <br /> \end{array}

Is my work correct?
Thank you
 
Physics news on Phys.org
looks good to me =P
 
Yeah it seems all right.
 
There are two things I don't understand about this problem. First, when finding the nth root of a number, there should in theory be n solutions. However, the formula produces n+1 roots. Here is how. The first root is simply ##\left(r\right)^{\left(\frac{1}{n}\right)}##. Then you multiply this first root by n additional expressions given by the formula, as you go through k=0,1,...n-1. So you end up with n+1 roots, which cannot be correct. Let me illustrate what I mean. For this...
Back
Top