# Find derivatives via first principle using W|A?

GROUPS:
 Hello,I'd like to know if it is possible to limit the step-by-step solution to solely first principle, and if so, how would I go about searching for it via Wolfram Alpha?Thank you in advance.
Answer
22 days ago
3 Replies
 Michael Rogers 1 Vote By first principles I suppose you mean the derivative rule theorems. Or do you mean the limit definition of the derivative? And if the limit, do you want the limit derived from the epsilon-delta definition or from the limit rule theorems? (All the possibilities seem like interesting exercises to automate.)
Answer
22 days ago
 I'm looking for a way to automate something along these lines:Find the derivative of f(x) = x² from first principles::f'(x) = lim h->0 [f(x+h) - f(x)]/h= lim h->0 [(x+h)² - x²)]/h= lim h->0 [(x² + 2hx + h² - x²)]/h= 2xHow would I type up a search query so that I could get step-by-step solutions such as those?
Answer
22 days ago
 In Mathematica deriv[funcofx_] := Limit[ ((funcofx /. x -> x + h) - funcofx)/h, h -> 0] 
Answer
22 days ago