Derivative Calculator
Compute numeric derivatives at a point and see simple symbolic forms for common expressions.
About derivatives
Derivatives measure the instantaneous rate of change of a function. They are central to calculus and are used across physics, engineering and economics. For many functions you can apply power, product, quotient and chain rules to obtain symbolic derivatives. When symbolic manipulation is complex or not required, numerical derivatives computed via finite differences (central difference) provide good approximations for specific points. Use small step size h (e.g., 10^-6) for high precision but beware of round-off error. This tool presents a numeric estimate and will show a symbolic derivative for simple forms like x^n or basic trig functions.
Examples: try x^2 at x=3 (symbolic 2x, numeric 6). For trigonometric functions use sin(x) or cos(x). For more complex symbolic output we can add a symbolic engine (mathjs or a small CAS) in the next iteration.