What is the point of differentiation?

Differentiation is a very useful concept; informally it tells us how 'fast' something is changing. A real-life example is given by the first and second derivatives of distance with respect to time: the first derivative represents speed and the second derivative represents acceleration. It turns out there are higher-order derivatives called jerk, snap, crackle, and pop!

Answered by Jake H. Maths tutor

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