Exercise · ZW-CHAIN-RULE-007 · ★★☆ Intermediate

Differentiate \(f(x)=\left(x^{2} + x\right)^{3}\).

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  • C. \(3 \left(2 x + 1\right) \left(x^{2} + x\right)^{2}\)

Explanation

The outer function is \(F(u)=u^{3}\) and the inner one is \(g(x)=x^{2} + x\). Then \(F'(g(x))\,g'(x)=3 \left(x^{2} + x\right)^{2}\cdot\left(2 x + 1\right)\), which gives \(3 \left(2 x + 1\right) \left(x^{2} + x\right)^{2}\).

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Review the concept: Chain rule

The chain rule gives the derivative of a composition \(f(g(x))\): the outer derivative evaluated at the inner function, times the derivative of the inner function.

\[\frac{d}{dx}f(g(x))=f'(g(x))\,g'(x)\]

More practice problems: chain rule

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