We have the power rule to tell us the derivative of functions of the form xn, where n is a constant. However, here our exponent is not a constant. Similarly, in this section we learned the derivative of functions of the form ax, where a is a constant, but again, our base is not a constant! Although the result dxdax=axloga is not what we need, the method used to differentiate ax will tell us the derivative of xx.
We'll set g(x)=log(xx), because now we can use logarithm rules to simplify:
g(x)=log(f(x))Now, we can use the product rule to differentiate the right side, and the chain rule to differentiate log(f(x)):g′(x)=f(x)f′(x)Finally, we solve for f′(x):f′(x)=xlogx=logx+xx1=logx+1=f(x)(logx+1)=xx(logx+1)