My Favorite One-Liners: Part 88

In this series, I’m compiling some of the quips and one-liners that I’ll use with my students to hopefully make my lessons more memorable for them.

In the first few weeks of my calculus class, after introducing the definition of a derivative,

$\displaystyle \frac{dy}{dx} = y' = f'(x) = \lim_{h \to 0} \displaystyle \frac{f(x+h) - f(x)}{h}$ ,

I’ll use the following steps to guide my students to find the derivatives of polynomials.

If $f(x) = c$ , a constant, then $\displaystyle \frac{d}{dx} (c) = 0$ .
If $f(x)$ and $g(x)$ are both differentiable, then $(f+g)'(x) = f'(x) + g'(x)$ .
If $f(x)$ is differentiable and $c$ is a constant, then $(cf)'(x) = c f'(x)$ .
If $f(x) = x^n$ , where $n$ is a nonnegative integer, then $f'(x) = n x^{n-1}$ .
If $f(x) = a_n x^n + a_{n-1} x^{n-1} + \dots + a_1 x + a_0$ is a polynomial, then $f'(x) = n a_n x^{n-1} + (n-1) a_{n-1} x^{n-2} + a_1$ .

After doing a few examples to help these concepts sink in, I’ll show the following two examples with about 3-4 minutes left in class.

Example 1. Let $A(r) = \pi r^2$ . Notice I’ve changed the variable from $x$ to $r$ , but that’s OK. Does this remind you of anything? (Students answer: the area of a circle.)

What’s the derivative? Remember, $\pi$ is just a constant. So $A'(r) = \pi \cdot 2r = 2\pi r$ .

Does this remind you of anything? (Students answer: Whoa… the circumference of a circle.)

Generally, students start waking up even though it’s near the end of class. I continue:

Example 2. Now let’s try $V(r) = \displaystyle \frac{4}{3} \pi r^3$ . Does this remind you of anything? (Students answer: the volume of a sphere.)

What’s the derivative? Again, $\displaystyle \frac{4}{3} \pi$ is just a constant. So $V'(r) = \displaystyle \frac{4}{3} \pi \cdot 3r^2 = 4\pi r^2$ .

Does this remind you of anything? (Students answer: Whoa… the surface area of a sphere.)

By now, I’ve really got my students’ attention with this unexpected connection between these formulas from high school geometry. If I’ve timed things right, I’ll say the following with about 30-60 seconds left in class:

Hmmm. That’s interesting. The derivative of the area of a circle is the circumference of the circle, and the derivative of the area of a sphere is the surface area of the sphere. I wonder why this works. Any ideas? (Students: stunned silence.)

This is what’s known as a cliff-hanger, and I’ll give you the answer at the start of class tomorrow. (Students groan, as they really want to know the answer immediately.) Class is dismissed.

If you’d like to see the answer, see my previous post on this topic.

My Favorite One-Liners: Part 88

Published by John Quintanilla

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