How do you find the derivative of y =sqrt(3x+1)?

1 Answer
Jul 31, 2014

When you're differentiating radicals, the key is to rewrite them in rational exponent form:

y = (3x+1)^(1/2)

Now it's more clear that we can apply the power rule and then the chain rule to find this function's derivative:

dy/dx = 3*(1/2*(3x+1)^(-1/2))

And now all we need to do is simplify a bit:

dy/dx = 3/(2sqrt(3x+1))