Calculus Examples

$\frac{1}{e^{x}}$

Step 1

Apply basic rules of exponents.

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Step 1.1

Rewrite $\frac{1}{e^{x}}$ as ${(e^{x})}^{- 1}$ .

$\frac{d}{d x} [{(e^{x})}^{- 1}]$

Step 1.2

Multiply the exponents in ${(e^{x})}^{- 1}$ .

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Step 1.2.1

Apply the power rule and multiply exponents, ${(a^{m})}^{n} = a^{m n}$ .

$\frac{d}{d x} [e^{x \cdot - 1}]$

Step 1.2.2

Move $- 1$ to the left of $x$ .

$\frac{d}{d x} [e^{- 1 \cdot x}]$

Step 1.2.3

Rewrite $- 1 x$ as $- x$ .

$\frac{d}{d x} [e^{- x}]$

Step 2

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

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Step 2.1

To apply the Chain Rule, set $u$ as $- x$ .

$\frac{d}{d u} [e^{u}] \frac{d}{d x} [- x]$

Step 2.2

Differentiate using the Exponential Rule which states that $\frac{d}{d u} [a^{u}]$ is $a^{u} \ln (a)$ where $a$ = $e$ .

$e^{u} \frac{d}{d x} [- x]$

Step 2.3

Replace all occurrences of $u$ with $- x$ .

$e^{- x} \frac{d}{d x} [- x]$

Step 3

Differentiate.

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Step 3.1

Since $- 1$ is constant with respect to $x$ , the derivative of $- x$ with respect to $x$ is $- \frac{d}{d x} [x]$ .

$e^{- x} (- \frac{d}{d x} [x])$

Step 3.2

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

$e^{- x} (- 1 \cdot 1)$

Step 3.3

Simplify the expression.

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Step 3.3.1

Multiply $- 1$ by $1$ .

$e^{- x} \cdot - 1$

Step 3.3.2

Move $- 1$ to the left of $e^{- x}$ .

$- 1 \cdot e^{- x}$

Step 3.3.3

Rewrite $- 1 e^{- x}$ as $- e^{- x}$ .

$- e^{- x}$