Learning Resources

Investigation 9: A Powerful Rule for Finding the Derivative

Step A

If you having trouble expanding the numerator, it may help to recall that the coefficients of the terms in the binomial expansion (x + h)ⁿ are the elements in the n^th row of Pascal's Triangle. 


This formula can be used, for example, to quickly simplify (x + h)⁴. 
(x + h)⁴ = x⁴ + 4x³h + 6x²h² + 4xh³ + h⁴.