Find the Difference Quotient f(x)=-2x-5

$f (x) = - 2 x - 5$

Step 1

Consider the difference quotient formula.

$\frac{f (x + h) - f (x)}{h}$

Step 2

Find the components of the definition.

Evaluate the function at $x = x + h$ .

Replace the variable $x$ with $x + h$ in the expression.

$f (x + h) = - 2 (x + h) - 5$

Simplify the result.

Apply the distributive property.

$f (x + h) = - 2 x - 2 h - 5$

The final answer is $- 2 x - 2 h - 5$ .

$- 2 x - 2 h - 5$

Reorder $- 2 x$ and $- 2 h$ .

$- 2 h - 2 x - 5$

Find the components of the definition.

$f (x + h) = - 2 h - 2 x - 5$

$f (x) = - 2 x - 5$

$f (x + h) = - 2 h - 2 x - 5$

$f (x) = - 2 x - 5$

Step 3

Plug in the components.

$\frac{f (x + h) - f (x)}{h} = \frac{- 2 h - 2 x - 5 - (- 2 x - 5)}{h}$

Step 4

Simplify.

Simplify the numerator.

Apply the distributive property.

$\frac{- 2 h - 2 x - 5 - (- 2 x) - - 5}{h}$

Multiply $- 2$ by $- 1$ .

$\frac{- 2 h - 2 x - 5 + 2 x - - 5}{h}$

Multiply $- 1$ by $- 5$ .

$\frac{- 2 h - 2 x - 5 + 2 x + 5}{h}$

Add $- 2 x$ and $2 x$ .

$\frac{- 2 h + 0 - 5 + 5}{h}$

Add $- 2 h$ and $0$ .

$\frac{- 2 h - 5 + 5}{h}$

Add $- 5$ and $5$ .

$\frac{- 2 h + 0}{h}$

Add $- 2 h$ and $0$ .

$\frac{- 2 h}{h}$

Divide $- 2$ by $1$ .

$- 2$

Step 5