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DerivativesCalculusCollegeabout 0:43

Derivative of 1/x: animated lesson

A narrated, step-by-step derivatives video lesson with captions. Final answer: f'(x) = -(1 / x²).

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Video with a synthetic English voice and captions. Pick another language for subtitles in that language, or open the interactive version.

Video narrated by a synthetic voice (Piper TTS, en_US-ljspeech-high voice (LJ Speech dataset, public domain)); the steps come from our maths engine and the answer was checked independently. Download MP4 (0.3 MB) · Captions (WebVTT)

Steps on screen

1. The problem
Finding a derivative
$\frac{d}{dx}\left[\frac{1}{x}\right]$
2. Step by step
1. $\frac{d}{dx}\left[\frac{1}{x}\right] = -\frac{1}{{x}^{2}}$
  Quotient rule: (u/v)′ = (u′v − uv′)/v²
2. $f'(x) = -\frac{1}{{x}^{2}}$
  Combine and simplify
3. The answer
$f'(x) = -\frac{1}{{x}^{2}}$
f'(x) = -(1 / x²)
4. Check
- Cross-checked numerically against an independent symbolic differentiator at 8 sample points ✓

Transcript

The problem. Here is the problem: derivative of 1/x. Find the derivative of 1 / x with respect to x.

Step by step. Quotient rule: (u/v) prime equals (u prime v minus uv prime )/v squared. Combine and simplify.

The answer. So the answer is f prime of x equals -(1 / x squared). The derivative is built from the outside in: sums split into terms, constants factor out, products and quotients use their rules, and every composite function multiplies by the derivative of its inside (chain rule).

Check. Cross-checked numerically against an independent symbolic differentiator at 8 sample points, which checks out.

About derivatives

Differentiate with the power, product, quotient and chain rules, including higher derivatives.

Derivative of 1/x: Derivatives Step-by-Step Lesson