Calculus: Early Transcendentals 8th Edition

Published by Cengage Learning
ISBN 10: 1285741552
ISBN 13: 978-1-28574-155-0

Chapter 3 - Section 3.4 - The Chain Rule - 3.4 Exercises - Page 204: 55

Answer

a) $y=\frac{1}{2}x+1$ b) See graph

Work Step by Step

a) To get the equation of the line tangent to the graph, we need to know the slope, which we can find by taking the derivative. I also rearranged the equation here to avoid the quotent rule in favor of the chain rule, which is often easier to compute.$$f(x)=\frac{2}{1+e^{-x}}=2(1+e^{-x})^{-1}$$ $$f'(x)=2\frac{d}{dx}(1+e^{-x})^{-1}$$ Applying the chain rule twice, we get: $$f'(x)=2\times-1\times(1+e^{-x})^{-2}\times-e^{-x}$$ $$=\frac{2}{e^x(1+e^{-x})^2}$$ Now we need to plug in $x=0$ to find the slope at that point. $$\frac{2}{1(1+1)^2}=\frac{2}{4}=\frac{1}{2}$$ Using the coordinate $(0,1)$ and the slope we found, we can determine that the line tangent to the graph at that point is $y-1=\frac{1}{2}(x-0)$ (or $y=\frac{1}{2}x+1$). b) See graph (tangent line is in red and the graph is in blue).
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