What is the derivative of #sec(x^2)#?

1 Answer
Dec 18, 2014

Answer
#d/dx sec(x^2)= sec(x^2)tan(x^2)2x#

Explanation

To solve this question, you would need to use the chain rule (and later on, the quotient rule as well).

In #sec (x^2)#, you can quite easily identitfy the "inner" and "outer" functions present to use the chain rule. The "inner" function is #x^2#, because it is composed/inside of in the #sec#.

The chain rule is:
#F'(x)=f'(g(x))(g'(x))#

Or, in words:

the derivative of the outer function (with the inside function left alone!) times the derivative of the inner function.

To make things simpler, I'm going to denote #u=x^2# for now because at one point, we will have to leave the inner function alone, but you don't have to do this. If you do, make sure you sub #u=x^2# back in at the end so that all your variables are in terms of #x#.

Steps
1) The derivative of the outer function (with the inside function #u# left alone!)
#d/dx sec (u)= d/dx 1/cos(u)#
NB: Unless you have the derivative of #sec# memorized, you will have to do a quotient rule here to find its derivative. We know that #sec(u)=1/cos(u)# from Trig. So...
#d/dx sec (u) = d/dx 1/cos(u) = (cos (u)(0) - 1 (-sin (u)))/( cos (u)cos (u))= sin (u)/ (cos (u) cos (u)) = sin(u)/cos(u) *(1/cos( u)) = tan (u) sec(u)=sec (u) tan (u)#

2) The derivative of the inner function:
#d/dx x^2=2x#

3) Combining the two steps to give the actual derivative:

#d/dx sec(x^2)= sec(x^2)tan(x^2)2x#