How do you find the derivative of y=ln(cos(x)) ?

2 Answers
Aug 22, 2014

You can find this derivative by applying the Chain Rule, with cosx as the inner function, and lnx as the outer function.

Process:

To apply the chain rule, we first find the derivative of the outer function, lnu, with u = cosx. Remember that the derivative of lnu = 1/u = 1/cosx.

Now we just need to find the derivative of the inner function, cosx, and multiply it by the derivative of the outer function we just found.

Since the derivative of cosx is (-sinx), we end up with:

dy/dx = (1/cosx) * (-sinx) = (-sinx/cosx) = -tanx.

A shorter way to do these is to just know that the derivative of a ln(u)-type function is the derivative of the inside over the original of what's inside.

Jun 4, 2017

dy/dx=-tanx

Explanation:

"differentiate using the "color(blue)"chain rule"

• d/dx(ln(f(x)))=(f'(x))/(f(x))

rArrdy/dx=(-sinx)/(cosx)=-tanx