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

  • Recognize a composition of functions.
  • Take derivatives of compositions of functions using the chain rule.
  • Take derivatives that require the use of multiple derivative rules.
  • Use order of operations in situations requiring multiple derivative rules.
  • Justify the chain rule via the composition of linear approximations.
  • Apply chain rule to relate quantities expressed with different units.
  • Use the chain rule to calculate derivatives from a table of values.