[Math] Is the derivative of a straight line the same of a tangent line

calculus

Sorry if I'm being too specific and for not showing an example but If you had a derivative of a straight line would the slope of the tangent line be the same as the straight line?

Best Answer

recall the formal (limit) definition of the derivative:

$$f'(x) = \lim_{h \rightarrow 0} \dfrac{f(x + h) - f(x)}{h}$$

let $f(x) = ax + b$ where $a,b$ are real numbers. Then

$\begin{equation*} \begin{split} f'(x) &= \lim_{h \rightarrow 0} \dfrac{\big(a(x + h) + b\big) - (ax + b)}{h} \\ &= \lim_{h \rightarrow 0} \dfrac{ax + ah + b - ax - b}{h} \\ &= \lim_{h \rightarrow 0} \dfrac{ah}{h} \\ &= a \end{split} \end{equation*}$

which is a horizontal line (generally speaking the derivative at a specific point is the slope of the tangent line at that point) There are a couple of important things to note:

1) a line that is already horizontal will have a slope of 0 (that is $a$ = 0) so its derivative will always be 0

2) the derivative is a function of $x$ (our independent variable) so a vertical line does not have a derivative

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