derivative of area of equilateral triangle

[Jimbo282]

Well I have this rate related question about the area of an equilateral triangle changing and I can solve it but I am really poor when it comes to quotient derivatives and I am unsure about the root in the area formula for the triangle. What I would like is if someone can help me with finding the derivative of:

Area of Equilateral Triangle: s^2*{3} / 4

*the three in the brackets means square root of 3

[Nuke]

The derrivative of the equation you posted is [see picture at bottom of post].
I hope that's what you wanted.

Edit: Incase you didn't know d/ds is just another way to show "derrivative" basically.

[Jimbo282]

Thanks thats just what I needed :d

[Nuke]

Great :) Just some followup. When you're taking the derrivative of some variable (e.g. s) to some power that is a constant (e.g. 2) then you multiply by the exponent (e.g. 2 in this case) and subtract one from exponent. In this case that makes it 2 * s^(2-1) which is 2 * s^1 which is 2 * s. You also had that root 3 over 4 (That isn't involved in the derrivative since it's a constant so you can just mentally pull it aside until after you have completed the steps prior to this). After that you neeed to multiply it in to the derrivative (put it back in). When you multiply it you get 2 * (root 3) / 4 * s. That can be written as (root 3) / 2 * s since 2 / 4 is equal to 1 / 2.

Hope that helps :)

[Jimbo282]

Yes, I noticed that in your answer. It's been a year since I've tackled anything like this so it's hard to remember all the rules. I wasn't sure if I should have treated the root 3 over 4 as a constant or not but other than that in the formula it looks like the product rule and some simplifying. I'm starting to get into the integral questions now and I've found a nice list of the rules but you might be seeing more posts from me :d

Thanks again, you're great help to have around.