Big Picture: Derivatives

Calculus finds the relationship between the distance traveled and the speed - easy for constant speed, not so easy for changing speed. Professor Strang is finding the "rate of change" and the "slope of a curve" and the "derivative of a function." View the complete course at: http://ocw.mit.edu/highlights-of-calculus Chapters: 00:00 Intro 00:24 Relationship Between Functions: Speed & Distance, Height & Slope 03:40 Slope of the Great Functions of Calculus: y = x^n, y = sin x, y = e^x 08:47 Example: What does slope mean? y = x^2 25:05 Example: What does slope mean? y = sin x, dy/dx = cos x License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA More information at http://ocw.mit.edu/terms More courses at http://ocw.mit.edu Subtitles are provided through the generous assistance of Jimmy Ren.