Power Rule

The Power Rule describes how to take derivatives of polynomials. Specifically, for polynomial a_{n}x^n:

\frac{d}{dx}a_{n}x^n = na_{n}x^{n-1}, \qquad n \neq 0

In words, if you have a polynomial with variable x raised to the power n with coefficient a, to find its derivative multiply a by n and subtract one from the exponent.

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