Higher Order Derivatives Examples:

The second derivative and above are Find the first, second, and third
known as the higher-order derivatives. derivatives of f( x) = 5 x 4− 3x 3 + 7x 2 −
For f(x) with first derivative f′(x), 9x + 2.

𝑑𝑦
it can also be written as ,
𝑑𝑥

the second derivative is the derivative of

the first derivative: ,
𝑑 𝑑𝑦 𝑑2𝑦
it can also be written as · = Find the first, second, and third
𝑑𝑥 𝑑𝑥 𝑑𝑥
derivatives of y = sin 2 x.
The third derivative is the derivative of
the
second,

, and so on.
𝑑 𝑑2𝑦 𝑑3𝑦
It can also be written as 𝑑𝑥 · = ,
𝑑𝑥 𝑑𝑥

For fourth-order and higher derivatives,

Find y″ for x2+y4=10
the notation is , where (n)
indicates the nth derivative, rather than First, get the first derivative of the
𝑑 𝑑(𝑛)𝑦 𝑑(n)𝑦
an exponent. 𝑑𝑥 · = function by using implicit differentiation.
𝑑𝑥 𝑑𝑥

If f(x) is an nth-degree polynomial, 2x+4y3y′=

then if . The x
higher-order derivative test states that
y′= −
2y3
for f(x), differentiable over an interval,
Since we’re finding for the 2nd derivative,
where exists and is non-zero x
we’ll get the derivative of y′=− 3
2y
and , then
x
y′′ = (− )
if n is even and , x is a local 2y3

maximum and if , x is a 2y3 −x(6y2 y′ )

− (2y3 )2
local minimum; if n is odd, x is an
inflection point.
 2y3 −(6xy2 y′ )
−
4y6

y−3xy′
−
2y4

We would like there to be no derivatives

in the answer. We don’t, generally, mind
having x’s and/or y’s in the answer when
doing implicit differentiation, but we
really don’t like derivatives in the
answer. Replace the y′ in the equation
with the value you got for the first
derivative.

y−3xy′
y′′ = −
2y4

x
y−3x(− 3 )
2y
=−
2y4

3
y+ x2 y−3
=− 2
2y4