Rules for basic functions

Here are the rules for the derivatives of the most common basic functions, where a is a real number.

• Derivatives of powers:

  ${\displaystyle {\frac {d}{dx}}x^{a}=ax^{a-1}.}$

• Exponential and logarithmic functions:

  ${\displaystyle {\frac {d}{dx}}e^{x}=e^{x}.}$

  ${\displaystyle {\frac {d}{dx}}a^{x}=a^{x}\ln(a),\qquad a>0}$

  ${\displaystyle {\frac {d}{dx}}\ln(x)={\frac {1}{x}},\qquad x>0.}$

  ${\displaystyle {\frac {d}{dx}}\log _{a}(x)={\frac {1}{x\ln(a)}},\qquad x,a>0}$

• Trigonometric functions:

  ${\displaystyle {\frac {d}{dx}}\sin(x)=\cos(x).}$

  ${\displaystyle {\frac {d}{dx}}\cos(x)=-\sin(x).}$

  ${\displaystyle {\frac {d}{dx}}\tan(x)=\sec ^{2}(x)={\frac {1}{\cos ^{2}(x)}}=1+\tan ^{2}(x).}$

• Inverse trigonometric functions:

  ${\displaystyle {\frac {d}{dx}}\arcsin(x)={\frac {1}{\sqrt {1-x^{2}}}},\qquad -1<x<1.}$

  ${\displaystyle {\frac {d}{dx}}\arccos(x)=-{\frac {1}{\sqrt {1-x^{2}}}},\qquad -1<x<1.}$

  ${\displaystyle {\frac {d}{dx}}\arctan(x)={\frac {1}{1+x^{2}}}}$