The derivative is often described as the instantaneous rate of change, the ratio of the instantaneous change in the dependent variable to that of the independent variable. [1] The process of finding a derivative is called differentiation. There are multiple different notations for differentiation.
Derivative, in mathematics, the rate of change of a function with respect to a variable. Geometrically, the derivative of a function can be interpreted as the slope of the graph of the function or, more precisely, as the slope of the tangent line at a point.