Question

Find y’ for y=7sec^3x

Answer 1

Taking the derivative of 7 times secant of x^3:
We take out 7 as a constant focus on secant (x^3)
To take the derivative, we use the chain rule, taking the derivative of the inside, bringing it out, and then the derivative of the original function. For example:
The derivative of x^3 is 3x^2, and the derivative of secant is tan(x) and sec(x).
Knowing this: secant (x^3) becomes tan(x^3) * sec(x^3) * 3x^2. We transform tan(x^3) into sin(x^3)/cos(x^3) since tan(x) = sin(x)/cos(x). Then secant(x^3) becomes 1/cos(x^3) since the secant is the reciprocal of the cosine.

We then multiply everything together to simplify:

sin(x^3) * 3x^2/ cos(x^3) * cos(x^3) becomes

3x^2 * sin(x^3)/(cos(x^3))^2

and multiplying the constant 7 from the beginning:

7 * 3x^2 = 21x^2, so...

our derivative is 21x^2 * sin(x^3)/(cos(x^3))^2