Saturday, August 14, 2010

Use implicit differentiation to find an equation of the tangent line at the given point


First, take the derivative of both sides of the equation using implicit differentiation.



Take note that the derivative formula of arctangent is




And the derivative formula of arcsine is




Applying these two formulas, the equation becomes



To take the derivative of xy, apply the product rule.




Applying this formula, the equation becomes




Then, isolate .









Then, plug-in the given point to get the slope of the curve at that point. The given point is (0,0).



Take note that the slope of a curve at point (x,y) is equal to the slope of the line tangent to that point.  So the slope of the tangent line is



Then, apply the point-slope form to get the equation of the line.



Plugging in the values, it becomes






Therefore, the equation of the tangent line is .

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