SOLUTION: What is the slope of the tangent line through (0,-3) and (x,y) for y = 3x2 - 3 and x=1?

Algebra.Com
Question 1121246: What is the slope of the tangent line through (0,-3) and (x,y) for y = 3x2 - 3 and x=1?
Answer by Edwin McCravy(20056)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
What is the slope of the tangent line through (0,-3) and (x,y)
for y = 3x² - 3 and x=1?
It's best to draw a graph when you can.



You want the slope of the green tangent line which goes through at (0,-3)
and the blue tangent line which is through the point where x=1, which has
the y-value found by substituting 1 for x in y = 3x² - 3
                        y = 3(1)² - 3
                        y = 3(1) - 3
                        y = 3 - 3
                        y = 0

So the blue line goes through the point (1,0). 

The derivative is a formula for finding the slope of a tangent line at any
point.   So we find the derivative:

                       y = 3x² - 3
                      y' = 6x

To find the slope of the green tangent line, we substitute the x value of
the point (0,-3), which is 0, in the derivative:

                      y' = 6(0)
                      y' = 0

So the slope of the green tangent line is 0. [You expect that because the green
line is horizontal, and any horizontal line has slope 0.


To find the slope of the blue tangent line, we substitute the x value of the
point (1,0), which is 1, in the derivative:

                      y' = 6(1)
                      y' = 6

So the slope of the blue tangent line is 6.  The blue line goes up to the right
so we would expect it to have a positive number for its slope, and a slope of 6
is pretty steep.

Edwin

RELATED QUESTIONS

Answer Checking: What is the slope of the tangent line through (0,-3) and (x,y) for y... (answered by solver91311,Edwin McCravy)
What is the slope of the tangent line at x=-2 and... (answered by Edwin McCravy)
1. What is the equation of a line that passes through points (-1, 2) and (5, 2)? y - 2... (answered by ewatrrr,MathLover1)
Find the equation for the tangent line to the function f(x) = 4x3+3x2+5x+6 when x = 2. (answered by Cromlix)
Find the equation for the tangent line to the function f(x) = 4x3+3x2+5x+6 when x = 2. (answered by Theo)
What is the slope of the tangent line to the curve y = 2x^4 + x^3 + 6x at x =... (answered by Alan3354)
1) What is the equation of the line whose y-intercept is 3 and slope is 1? y = x - 3 y... (answered by ewatrrr)
Find the slope of the line through (-3,-1) and (x+3,... (answered by josgarithmetic)
Find the equations for each line that passes through the point (4,-1) and is tangent to... (answered by mccravyedwin,Edwin McCravy)