Simple Version of the Chain Rule

Topic #3.1: Composition of Functions

Suppose we want to find a derivative for this function: h(x) = sin(2x).

The sine function is on our list – we know that the derivative of sin(x) is cos(x). But we are not dealing
with just the sine function. There’s another function inside the function! We don’t just have “sine of x”
but rather we have “sine of something”, where the “something” is itself a function.

This means that to find this kind of derivative, it is essential that you have a clear understanding of the
composition of two functions. You have to look at h(x) = sin(2x) and see it as the composition of
functions and you have to recognize the building blocks:

g(x) = 2x and f(x) = sin(x)

We are not going to just add them or multiply them. Instead, we use the output of one of them as the
input to the other. So we build:

​ h(x) = f(g(x)) = sin(2x)

The g(x) function is the inner function. It starts off by doubling its input. Then that output is handed off
to the “outer function”, f(x) which finds the sine.

And now, if we want to find the derivative, we need to learn…

THE CHAIN RULE (maybe)

Once again, we pause and remind ourselves of the purpose of this assignment. If we show you “the chain
rule”, we can then use it to start finding derivatives of long, challenging “chains” of compositions of
multiple functions, such as:

But then, remember two things:

1.​ This is beyond what we will actually need in the opening months of AP Physics C.
2.​ Your math teachers deserve to have some of the fun as well.

Module #3: AP Physics C Summer Assignment Page 1

So we are only going to introduce a lesser version of the chain rule, one that is just enough to handle a
special case, one that we will actually need in class very early in the year:

THE SIMPLE CHAIN RULE FOR CONSTANT MULTIPLIERS

For example, look at each of these functions:

In each case, the “outer” function is one from our list of well-known functions. And the “inner” function is
a constant multiplier.

There is an easy rule that handles all of these:

In other words, go ahead and take the derivative using the familiar rule, but then multiply your answer
by the constant you see “inside” the original expression.

With this rule we can find all three of the derivatives above:

The derivative of “e to the something” is “e to

that something”, and the 3 is a multiplier.

The derivative of “the cosine

of something” is “the minus
sine of that something” and
the 5 is a multiplier.

The derivative of “the sine of

something” is “the cosine of
something” and the 2 is a
multiplier.

DON’T JUST TAKE OUR WORD FOR IT…

Module #3: AP Physics C Summer Assignment Page 2

Why do we multiply by that same number you see in the inner function? It turns out that there is an
intuitive way to understand this rule. Once again, we have to look at graphs and their transformations.

In the last module, we saw that compared to the graph of y = f(x), the graph of y = a· f(x) was stretched
vertically when a > 1, and that the vertical stretch affected the tangent line as well, also increasing its
slope by that same factor, a.

But now we consider the graph of y = f(a· x), we see that a > 1 leads to a horizontal compression, and that
compression affects the tangent line as well. Slope is rise over run, so reducing the run increases the
slope, again by that same factor, a. That’s why our derivatives all have that multiplier: compressing the
graphs horizontally makes the slopes steeper.

𝑥 3𝑥
For example, here are graphs of f(x) = 𝑒 and f(x) = 𝑒

You can see that the graph is horizontally compressed.

And when you compare the slopes of the tangent lines, you see that the second one is 3 times as steep as
the first. [But notice: the first tangent line is at x = 0.6 and the second one is at x = 0.2. Why did we do
that?] Until your math teacher unveils the chain rule in its full glory, please let the diagram above serve
as a proof of our simpler version. But in the meantime…click this video for an animated version of what
we are trying to say. And if you want to play with the Desmos file, it’s here.

SO WHERE ARE WE NOW?

At this point, we have assembled some basic derivative formulas and some rules about combining them.
This would be a good place to pause and see if you are keeping up and attempt some of the practice
problems at the end of this module. Once you have mastered the practice problems, you will be ready to
find out what we do with these slope-finding formulas once we have derived them.

Module #3: AP Physics C Summer Assignment Page 3

 Making the Best of Things
Topic #3.2: Optimization

A Very Useful Thing About Slope Formulas

As you have worked through the previous posts and exercises, we hope you have noticed something
special about places on a graph where the derivative is zero. These places have horizontal tangent lines.
And in their own neighborhoods, they are often a local maximum or local minimum. This piece of
information is very helpful when you are trying to solve an “optimization” problem.

For example…

Suppose you are firing a projectile on a horizontal surface at a fixed launch speed, v. And let’s
also suppose that air friction is negligible. What angle will maximize the range (horizontal
distance) of the projectile?

You may remember the answer if you took physics last year. It is intuitive and there was a way to get the
answer without calculus. But we can still use this example to illustrate the calculus method.

Module #3: AP Physics C Summer Assignment Page 4

STEP 1: Express the quantity to be optimized as a function of a single variable.

In this case, an introduction to kinematics and projectile motion will show you that the distance
varies with the launch angle by the rule:

In brief, we resolved the launch velocity into components, used the vertical component to
determine time in air and then multiplied that time by the horizontal component of the velocity.
But now that we have this expression, for our current purposes it would be helpful to make use of
the double angle identity for the sine function. We can write:

Don’t worry if you would not have known how to do all that without notes. The point here is to
learn what we can do with this expression now that we have it.

STEP 2: Find the derivative

This is one we know how to do: we know the derivative of sine functions and we know the special
case of the chain rule.

STEP 3: What is the domain of interest to us?

When a math book asks for the domain of a function, they usually mean the largest, most inclusive
domain possible. For a sine function, that would be all real numbers. But that is not what we are
after here. We need to think about the portion of the domain that is relevant. To fire this
cannonball as far as we can, clearly we will choose an angle between 0 and π/2 radians.

STEP 4: Where in that domain is the derivative equal to zero?

In this case…

(OK, call it 45 degrees if you prefer.)

Module #3: AP Physics C Summer Assignment Page 5

STEP 5 (and your math teacher may not like this): Convince ourselves that we
are done.

In math class, once you have found where the derivative is zero (or is undefined), you are not
nearly done. You have to investigate each of these “critical points” to see what kind of extreme it is
and to justify your conclusion with such things as sign charts and 2nd derivative tests. But in
physics class, you are going to get away a little easier because of the following claim:

If a “smooth” function has only one critical point on some interval and the value of the function is
higher at that critical point than at either of the endpoints, then that value is the “absolute
maximum” value.

So in the example at hand, we know the cannonball’s range is zero when the angle is zero, and its
zero when the angle is 90 degrees (as the ball goes straight up and down). But it is NOT zero when
the launch angle is 45 degrees. But the tangent line is horizontal at 45 degrees. So that’s the “best”
angle.

You still have to learn to do things the math-class way. There are lots of functions with multiple critical
points. And there are functions that have horizontal tangent lines at places that turn out not to be
maxima or minima. So you do have to know how to investigate further.

But the problems you will see in AP Physics C don’t usually turn out that way. Most often, there will be
only one critical point and it will be the one we were looking for. Here’s another classic optimization
example:

Suppose you have a large cylindrical

tank full of water, open at the top. You
are going to punch a hole in the tank
somewhere along its side and you want
the resulting jet of water to land as far
from the tank as possible. Where should
you make the hole? And where will that
initial jet of water land?

Let’s say you make the hole y units from the ground and the initial jet lands x units from the tank.

Module #3: AP Physics C Summer Assignment Page 6

STEP 1: Determine x as a function of y

First we need the “speed of efflux” which you can think of as the horizontal launch velocity of the
water coming out of the hole. There is a neat result from fluid dynamics that shows that the water
leaves the tank at the same speed as if it had free-fallen from the top of the tank. It’s called
Torricelli's Law.

You can see more about this calculation here.

Now, we just find the water’s time in the air and multiply that by its launch speed.

For time in air, we can use the fact that

and solve for time to get:

So for the distance as a function of the height of the hole we get:

STEP 2: Find the derivative

Well, it seems we need the more advanced version of the chain rule. But there is a trick to make things
easier. The distance x will be at its maximum when the term inside the square root is at its maximum.
So let’s ignore the square root and just maximize the innards.

Module #3: AP Physics C Summer Assignment Page 7

STEP 3: Domain of interest?

We can’t make a hole below the ground or above the height of the cylinder so we only have to
consider y values between 0 and h.

STEP 4: Set the derivative equal to zero

We need a hole in the middle!

STEP 5: Convince ourselves that we are done

There was only one critical point. And the endpoints both lead to a distance of zero. So the hole at y
= h/2 is the one that gives us the farthest landing point.

And what is that landing point? Substitute y = h/2 into our original function, which was:

We will leave the substitution and clean-up to you. We will say that it cleans up quite nicely and
has a memorable result. The first future AP Physics C student to post the correct result in a
comment wins some silly thing or other.

Quick Recap and Closing Remarks:

In AP Physics C, when you want to find the maximum or minimum possible value of some quantity, most
of the time it will just be a matter of taking a derivative, then setting it equal to zero and then waving
your hands around to convince yourself that you are done.

The hardest part of the process is not going to be the calculus. It’s going to be setting up the variables and
finding the expression for the quantity you hope to optimize. That’s why you had all those homework
problems back in pre-calc that said “Express this thing in terms of that thing”.

We should mention that if you are having trouble either finding the derivative or solving after you set it
equal to zero, you may find your TI82 to be of some use. But honestly, sometimes it feels like the
calculator only gives intelligible answers to people who already know what the solution looks like.

Module #3: AP Physics C Summer Assignment Page 8

 A New Look at Exponential Decay
Topic #3.3: First Order Differential Equations

At some point in the past, you most likely learned a little about radioactive decay and half-life.

Here are some things that you may remember:

1.​ The size of a radioactive sample is can be expressed as a function of time:

N(t)=Noe-kt

2.​ The graph of this function looks like this:

Note that at time t = 0, the value is No and then the value decays asymptotically toward zero.

3.​ Graphs like this show up in many other contexts. For example, this looks a lot like the graph of
current vs. time for a charging capacitor. It also looks like the graph of displacement vs time for an
overdamped oscillator. And there are a number of graphs associated with motors and generators
that also have this shape.

Module #3: AP Physics C Summer Assignment Page 9

 4.​ When a quantity decays exponentially, in equal time intervals it will decrease by the same factor.
Most notably, the time it takes to decrease by 50% is called the “half-life”. There is a useful formula
relating the half-life to the decay constant:

Do NOT just memorize this – derive it for yourself. If you need help getting started, you can begin
by letting N(t)= ½ N0 .

*** To see that this claim about half-life is true, you can play with Part 1 of the desmos
activity here.**

However, all of this assumes that we already know that the function is N(t)=Noe-kt. But how do we know
that? When you see exponential decay, you should suspect that somewhere behind the scenes lurks
something called a differential equation. And that brings us (finally) to the topic of this post.

WHAT IS A DIFFERENTIAL EQUATION?

“The rate at which a given radioactive sample decays is proportional to the size of the sample.”

We hope that sentence makes sense to you, intuitively. It is saying that when there are more nuclei
available to decay, the decay rate is faster. As the sample shrinks in size, there are fewer available nuclei
and so the rate slows down.

*** This claim can be investigated further in Part 2 of that same Desmos activity. Really, go do
this now! We’ll wait here…

OK, so the rate is proportional to the current value.

But that sentence can be rewritten using mathematical symbols:

Module #3: AP Physics C Summer Assignment Page 10

The resulting equation relates a function, N(t), to one (or more) of its derivatives. In this case, the highest
order derivative is the first derivative so this is called a “first order differential equation”. We are going to
encounter a number of these in AP Physics C and also a handful of second order differential equations as
well. You will learn how to solve some of these in math class this year. If you continue in math and
science, you may spend a number of semesters learning more about this topic. For now, we are going to
show you a method that will be sufficient for our specific needs.

WHAT DOES THE SOLUTION TO A DIFFERENTIAL EQUATION LOOK LIKE?

When you solve an algebraic equation, you find a number that you can use in place of the variable, thus
obtaining a true statement. For example, x = 3 is a solution to the equation 2x + 4 = 10 because when you
replace x with 3 in that equation, you get a true result. And even if you didn’t learn the step-by-step
method of solving that equation, you could still verify that x = 3 works.

Now we have a different kind of equation:

Here, we are not looking for a number. We are looking for a function, one that will make a true
statement when we use it to replace N(t) in that differential equation. Here is how we are going to do this:
(Don’t worry if this doesn’t “click” at first. We will walk through this several times.)

1.​ Based on our intuition, draw a graph of what the function N(t) will look like.

2.​ Use our extensive knowledge of pre-calculus to guess a general form of a function that has a graph
shaped like the one we just drew.

3.​ Take the derivative of our guess (and second derivative if needed).

4.​ Substitute back into the equation we are trying to solve to see if we get a true statement.

If we have guessed correctly (as we often will), we will actually pick up some bonus information. Follow
along with us and see what we mean. We’ll start from the beginning.

We are seeking a function N(t) that will satisfy this differential equation:

Module #3: AP Physics C Summer Assignment Page 11

 1.​ Our intuition about radioactive decay suggests that when we find the solution, its graph, as we
already noted, will look like this:

2.​ There are a number of functions that have that shape. For example, it could be that:

It’s not a terrible guess. It has the right value at t = 0 and it approaches zero asymptotically. We
don’t remember seeing that function used to model decay before and it would be all wrong for t
approaching –1, but let’s try it anyway.

3.​ Taking the derivative, we get…

4.​ Now, substituting the function and its derivative back into the original differential equation, we
get:

Hmm…can this be true? For a given value of k, it is true at some particular time. But we want a solution
that is ALWAYS true for ALL times. There is nothing we can do to fix this one. It turns out that our initial
guess, though not terrible, was wrong. OK, new guess. Let’s try an exponential function. Our memories
from pre-calc give us high hopes for this one:

Module #3: AP Physics C Summer Assignment Page 12

In this case, we would have the derivative:

(because the derivative of “e to the something” is “e to the something” and then there is that chain rule
multiplier.)

But what happens when we substitute these expressions back into the original differential equation?

Can this be true? Why yes, but only if c = k. In other words, we have just learned that we had correctly
guessed the general form of the solution but it can’t be just any old exponentially decaying function. The
decay constant in the function has to match the constant of proportionality in the original differential
equation. So with that adjustment, we have our solution:

This kind of thing happens a lot when we use this technique. At the end of the process, when you ask,
“can this equation be true?” you’ll get the answer: “yes, but only if…” followed by some new information
that tells you the required value of some constant.

Closing remarks

Please do not worry if you have found this reading to be challenging. Review this a few times and you may
realize that it is just another way to make use of derivatives and we still have not used any rules beyond
the ones we showed you in the earlier posts. But that does not mean that this was easy! Remember, you
will learn this much more extensively in your calculus class this year.

Module #3: AP Physics C Summer Assignment Page 13

 Module #3 Practice Problems
Directions: Solve the following problems on a separate sheet of paper. Organize your solutions,
show all work, and write neatly.

1.​ Find the derivative of the following functions:

4 2
a.​ 𝑓(𝑥) = (5𝑥 + 1)
10𝑥
b.​ 𝑓(𝑥) = 𝑒
c.​ 𝑓(𝑥) = 𝑠𝑖𝑛(15𝑥)
3
d.​ 𝑓(𝑥) = 𝑐𝑜𝑠(4𝑥 )
e.​ 𝑥(𝑡) = 𝑥𝑚𝑎𝑥𝑐𝑜𝑠(⍵𝑡 + ϕ), where ⍵ and ϕ are each a constant number.
2
f.​ 𝑦(𝑥) = 𝑥
1 7 2
g.​ 𝑓(𝑥) = − 2
+ 5
𝑥
2 1

h.​ 𝑓(𝑥) = 𝑥 3 − 𝑥 3 + 4

2.​ A projectile is launched vertically from the ground on a different planet. Its height can be expressed as
2
𝑦(𝑡) = 30𝑡 − 2𝑡 .
a.​ Derive an expression for the projectile’s speed, v(t).
b.​ Use your answer to part (a) to determine the time at which the projectile reaches its maximum
height.
c.​ Plug your answer from (b) into the original equation to determine the maximum height of the
projectile.

π
3.​ The position of a mass oscillating on a spring can be modeled using 𝑥(𝑡) = 8. 53 𝑐𝑜𝑠(12𝑡 + 2
),
where the angle inside the parentheses is measured in radians.
a.​ Derive an expression for the mass’s velocity with respect to time.
b.​ At what time will the oscillating mass first reach its maximum position? (HINT: for what
angles, in radians, is a sine function equal to zero?)
c.​ What is the maximum position of the mass?
d.​ Derive an expression for the mass’s acceleration with respect to time. (HINT: start from your
answer to part a)
e.​ At what time will the oscillating mass experience its greatest speed?
f.​ What is the maximum speed of the oscillating mass?

Click here to check your answers to Module #3 Practice Problems

Module #3: AP Physics C Summer Assignment Page 14