Common Calculus Mistakes
Inverse Trigonometric Functions: Inverse Tangent

The Goal

Find

goal


The Mistake

Find the mistake:

mistake

Need a hint? Look carefully at the red part:

mistake


The Correction

correction


An Explanation

The student has not used the correct formula to find the derivative of inverse tangent, and there's no sign that the chain rule was used at all (we would see a 2x factor somewhere).
The correct derivative formula for the inverse tangent function is:

formula

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