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8.   Find the derivative of  \frac{x ^n - a ^n }{x - a } for some constant a.

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Given,

f(x)=\frac{x ^n - a ^n }{x - a }

Now As we know the quotient rule of derivative,

\frac{d(\frac{y_1}{y_2})}{dx}=\frac{y_2\frac{dy_1}{dx}-y_1\frac{dy_2}{dx}}{y_2^2}

So applying this rule, we get

\frac{d(\frac{x^n-a^n}{x-a})}{dx}=\frac{(x-a)\frac{d(x^n-a^n)}{dx}-(x^n-a^n)\frac{d(x-a)}{dx}}{(x-a)^2}

\frac{d(\frac{x^n-a^n}{x-a})}{dx}=\frac{(x-a)nx^{n-1}-(x^n-a^n)}{(x-a)^2}

\frac{d(\frac{x^n-a^n}{x-a})}{dx}=\frac{nx^n-anx^{n-1}-x^n+a^n}{(x-a)^2}

Hence

f'(x)=\frac{nx^n-anx^{n-1}-x^n+a^n}{(x-a)^2}

Posted by

Pankaj Sanodiya

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