Calculus Examples

$x \cos^{3} (x)$

Step 1

Differentiate using the Product Rule which states that $\frac{d}{d x} [f (x) g (x)]$ is $f (x) \frac{d}{d x} [g (x)] + g (x) \frac{d}{d x} [f (x)]$ where $f (x) = x$ and $g (x) = \cos^{3} (x)$ .

$x \frac{d}{d x} [\cos^{3} (x)] + \cos^{3} (x) \frac{d}{d x} [x]$

Step 2

Differentiate using the chain rule, which states that $\frac{d}{d x} [f (g (x))]$ is $f' (g (x)) g' (x)$ where $f (x) = x^{3}$ and $g (x) = \cos (x)$ .

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Step 2.1

To apply the Chain Rule, set $u$ as $\cos (x)$ .

$x (\frac{d}{d u} [u^{3}] \frac{d}{d x} [\cos (x)]) + \cos^{3} (x) \frac{d}{d x} [x]$

Step 2.2

Differentiate using the Power Rule which states that $\frac{d}{d u} [u^{n}]$ is $n u^{n - 1}$ where $n = 3$ .

$x (3 u^{2} \frac{d}{d x} [\cos (x)]) + \cos^{3} (x) \frac{d}{d x} [x]$

Step 2.3

Replace all occurrences of $u$ with $\cos (x)$ .

$x (3 \cos^{2} (x) \frac{d}{d x} [\cos (x)]) + \cos^{3} (x) \frac{d}{d x} [x]$

Step 3

The derivative of $\cos (x)$ with respect to $x$ is $- \sin (x)$ .

$x (3 \cos^{2} (x) (- \sin (x))) + \cos^{3} (x) \frac{d}{d x} [x]$

Step 4

Differentiate using the Power Rule.

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Step 4.1

Multiply $- 1$ by $3$ .

$x (- 3 \cos^{2} (x) \sin (x)) + \cos^{3} (x) \frac{d}{d x} [x]$

Step 4.2

Differentiate using the Power Rule which states that $\frac{d}{d x} [x^{n}]$ is $n x^{n - 1}$ where $n = 1$ .

$x (- 3 \cos^{2} (x) \sin (x)) + \cos^{3} (x) \cdot 1$

Step 4.3

Simplify the expression.

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Step 4.3.1

Multiply $\cos^{3} (x)$ by $1$ .

$x (- 3 \cos^{2} (x) \sin (x)) + \cos^{3} (x)$

Step 4.3.2

Reorder terms.

$- 3 x \cos^{2} (x) \sin (x) + \cos^{3} (x)$