Precalculus Examples

$f (x) = 2 x^{- \frac{14}{5}}$

Step 1

Consider the difference quotient formula.

$\frac{f (x + h) - f (x)}{h}$

Step 2

Find the components of the definition.

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Step 2.1

Evaluate the function at $x = x + h$ .

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Step 2.1.1

Replace the variable $x$ with $x + h$ in the expression.

$f (x + h) = 2 {(x + h)}^{- \frac{14}{5}}$

Step 2.1.2

Simplify the result.

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Step 2.1.2.1

Rewrite the expression using the negative exponent rule $b^{- n} = \frac{1}{b^{n}}$ .

$f (x + h) = 2 (\frac{1}{{(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}})$

Step 2.1.2.2

Combine $2$ and $\frac{1}{{(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}$ .

$f (x + h) = \frac{2}{{(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}$

Step 2.1.2.3

The final answer is $\frac{2}{{(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}$ .

$\frac{2}{{(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}$

Step 2.2

Find the components of the definition.

$f (x + h) = \frac{2}{{(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}$

$f (x) = \frac{2}{x^{\frac{14}{5}}}$

$f (x + h) = \frac{2}{{(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}$

$f (x) = \frac{2}{x^{\frac{14}{5}}}$

Step 3

Plug in the components.

$\frac{f (x + h) - f (x)}{h} = \frac{\frac{2}{{(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}} - (\frac{2}{x^{\frac{14}{5}}})}{h}$

Step 4

Simplify.

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Step 4.1

Simplify the numerator.

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Step 4.1.1

To write $\frac{2}{{(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}$ as a fraction with a common denominator, multiply by $\frac{x^{\frac{14}{5}}}{x^{\frac{14}{5}}}$ .

$\frac{\frac{2}{{(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}} \cdot \frac{x^{\frac{14}{5}}}{x^{\frac{14}{5}}} - \frac{2}{x^{\frac{14}{5}}}}{h}$

Step 4.1.2

To write $- \frac{2}{x^{\frac{14}{5}}}$ as a fraction with a common denominator, multiply by $\frac{{(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}{{(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}$ .

$\frac{\frac{2}{{(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}} \cdot \frac{x^{\frac{14}{5}}}{x^{\frac{14}{5}}} - \frac{2}{x^{\frac{14}{5}}} \cdot \frac{{(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}{{(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}}{h}$

Step 4.1.3

Write each expression with a common denominator of ${(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}} x^{\frac{14}{5}}$ , by multiplying each by an appropriate factor of $1$ .

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Step 4.1.3.1

Multiply $\frac{2}{{(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}$ by $\frac{x^{\frac{14}{5}}}{x^{\frac{14}{5}}}$ .

$\frac{\frac{2 x^{\frac{14}{5}}}{{(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}} x^{\frac{14}{5}}} - \frac{2}{x^{\frac{14}{5}}} \cdot \frac{{(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}{{(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}}{h}$

Step 4.1.3.2

Multiply $\frac{2}{x^{\frac{14}{5}}}$ by $\frac{{(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}{{(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}$ .

$\frac{\frac{2 x^{\frac{14}{5}}}{{(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}} x^{\frac{14}{5}}} - \frac{2 {(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}{x^{\frac{14}{5}} {(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}}{h}$

Step 4.1.3.3

Reorder the factors of ${(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}} x^{\frac{14}{5}}$ .

$\frac{\frac{2 x^{\frac{14}{5}}}{x^{\frac{14}{5}} {(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}} - \frac{2 {(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}{x^{\frac{14}{5}} {(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}}{h}$

Step 4.1.4

Combine the numerators over the common denominator.

$\frac{\frac{2 x^{\frac{14}{5}} - 2 {(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}{x^{\frac{14}{5}} {(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}}{h}$

Step 4.1.5

Simplify the numerator.

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Step 4.1.5.1

Factor $2$ out of $2 x^{\frac{14}{5}} - 2 {(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}$ .

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Step 4.1.5.1.1

Factor $2$ out of $2 x^{\frac{14}{5}}$ .

$\frac{\frac{2 (x^{\frac{14}{5}}) - 2 {(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}{x^{\frac{14}{5}} {(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}}{h}$

Step 4.1.5.1.2

Factor $2$ out of $- 2 {(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}$ .

$\frac{\frac{2 (x^{\frac{14}{5}}) + 2 (- {(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}})}{x^{\frac{14}{5}} {(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}}{h}$

Step 4.1.5.1.3

Factor $2$ out of $2 (x^{\frac{14}{5}}) + 2 (- {(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}})$ .

$\frac{\frac{2 (x^{\frac{14}{5}} - {(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}})}{x^{\frac{14}{5}} {(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}}{h}$

Step 4.1.5.2

Rewrite $x^{\frac{14}{5}}$ as ${(x^{\frac{7}{5}})}^{2}$ .

$\frac{\frac{2 ({(x^{\frac{7}{5}})}^{2} - {(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}})}{x^{\frac{14}{5}} {(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}}{h}$

Step 4.1.5.3

Rewrite ${(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}$ as ${({(x + h)}^{\frac{7}{5}})}^{2}$ .

$\frac{\frac{2 ({(x^{\frac{7}{5}})}^{2} - {({(x + h)}^{\frac{7}{5}})}^{2})}{x^{\frac{14}{5}} {(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}}{h}$

Step 4.1.5.4

Since both terms are perfect squares, factor using the difference of squares formula, $a^{2} - b^{2} = (a + b) (a - b)$ where $a = x^{\frac{7}{5}}$ and $b = {(x + h)}^{\frac{7}{5}}$ .

$\frac{\frac{2 (x^{\frac{7}{5}} + {(x + h)}^{\frac{7}{5}}) (x^{\frac{7}{5}} - {(x + h)}^{\frac{7}{5}})}{x^{\frac{14}{5}} {(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}}{h}$

Step 4.2

Multiply the numerator by the reciprocal of the denominator.

$\frac{2 (x^{\frac{7}{5}} + {(x + h)}^{\frac{7}{5}}) (x^{\frac{7}{5}} - {(x + h)}^{\frac{7}{5}})}{x^{\frac{14}{5}} {(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}} \cdot \frac{1}{h}$

Step 4.3

Combine.

$\frac{2 (x^{\frac{7}{5}} + {(x + h)}^{\frac{7}{5}}) (x^{\frac{7}{5}} - {(x + h)}^{\frac{7}{5}}) \cdot 1}{x^{\frac{14}{5}} {(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}} h}$

Step 4.4

Simplify the expression.

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Step 4.4.1

Multiply $2$ by $1$ .

$\frac{2 (x^{\frac{7}{5}} + {(x + h)}^{\frac{7}{5}}) (x^{\frac{7}{5}} - {(x + h)}^{\frac{7}{5}})}{x^{\frac{14}{5}} {(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}} h}$

Step 4.4.2

Reorder factors in $\frac{2 (x^{\frac{7}{5}} + {(x + h)}^{\frac{7}{5}}) (x^{\frac{7}{5}} - {(x + h)}^{\frac{7}{5}})}{x^{\frac{14}{5}} {(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}} h}$ .

$\frac{2 (x^{\frac{7}{5}} + {(x + h)}^{\frac{7}{5}}) (x^{\frac{7}{5}} - {(x + h)}^{\frac{7}{5}})}{h x^{\frac{14}{5}} {(x + h)}^{\frac{14}{5}}}$

Step 5