Expert: Ahmed Salami - 8/25/2009

Question
can you find the slope of the tangent line on the curve at a given point.       y=3x^2-4 : (-1,-1)        please show work so i can learn how to do it myself. thanks!

Answer
Hi Sean,
The slope function of a curve is the derivative of the curve function. The tangent line at any given point on the curve has the same slope as the curve at that point.
For y = 3x^2 - 4, the slope function is
dy/dx = 6x
and so at the point (-1,-1) i.e x = -1, the slope of the tangent line is
dy/dx = 6(-1)
     = -6

I hope you're familiar with the techniques of differentiation though.

Regards