Basics of differentiation? revising and confused? easy if you've done this...?

Question

what do i get if i diffirentiate...

a) 5

b) t

Answer 1

f'(t) = ( f(t) - f(t0) )/ t- t0

if f(t) = 5, then

f'(t) = (5-5)/ (t-t0) = 0

if f(t) = t, then

f'(t) = (t-t0)/(t-t0) = 1

Answer 2

a)

The derivative of a constant is just 0, so:

(d/dt){5} = 0.

b)

The derivative of a linear function is just the slope of that line, so:

(d/dt){t} = dt/dt = 1.

Note: I assumed in the second part that you wanted to differentiate with respect to t.  If you differentiate with respect to any other variable not related to t, then you will get 0.