After completing this section, students should be able to do the following.

  • Use the definition of the derivative to develop shortcut rules to find the derivatives of constants and constant multiples.
  • Use the definition of the derivative to develop shortcut rules to find the derivatives of powers of .
  • Use the definition of the derivative to develop shortcut rules to find the derivatives of sums and differences of functions.
  • Compute the derivative of polynomials.