Definition+of+the+derivative+at+a+point+x+=+a

=The Derivative at //x//=//a//= The Definition of the Derivative formula can be rewritten to provide the slope at a point x=a as follows:

You will get the same result using this formula as the original formula, the mathematics is just slightly different.

Find the derivative of y=x 2 +2 at a point x=a
 * Example One **

Solution: Note that if you use the original formula (or the shortcut rules you will learn later), you will get f '(x)=2x, which validates that the formulas are mathematically equivalent.