Find the Difference Quotient f(x)=3/(x^2)

$f (x) = \frac{3}{x^{2}}$

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.

$f (x + h) = \frac{3}{{(x + h)}^{2}}$

The final answer is $\frac{3}{{(x + h)}^{2}}$ .

$\frac{3}{{(x + h)}^{2}}$

Find the components of the definition.

$f (x + h) = \frac{3}{{(x + h)}^{2}}$

$f (x) = \frac{3}{x^{2}}$

$f (x + h) = \frac{3}{{(x + h)}^{2}}$

$f (x) = \frac{3}{x^{2}}$

Step 3

Plug in the components.

$\frac{f (x + h) - f (x)}{h} = \frac{\frac{3}{{(x + h)}^{2}} - (\frac{3}{x^{2}})}{h}$

Step 4

Simplify.

Simplify the numerator.

To write $\frac{3}{{(x + h)}^{2}}$ as a fraction with a common denominator, multiply by $\frac{x^{2}}{x^{2}}$ .

$\frac{\frac{3}{{(x + h)}^{2}} \cdot \frac{x^{2}}{x^{2}} - \frac{3}{x^{2}}}{h}$

To write $- \frac{3}{x^{2}}$ as a fraction with a common denominator, multiply by $\frac{{(x + h)}^{2}}{{(x + h)}^{2}}$ .

$\frac{\frac{3}{{(x + h)}^{2}} \cdot \frac{x^{2}}{x^{2}} - \frac{3}{x^{2}} \cdot \frac{{(x + h)}^{2}}{{(x + h)}^{2}}}{h}$

Write each expression with a common denominator of ${(x + h)}^{2} x^{2}$ , by multiplying each by an appropriate factor of $1$ .

Multiply $\frac{3}{{(x + h)}^{2}}$ by $\frac{x^{2}}{x^{2}}$ .

$\frac{\frac{3 x^{2}}{{(x + h)}^{2} x^{2}} - \frac{3}{x^{2}} \cdot \frac{{(x + h)}^{2}}{{(x + h)}^{2}}}{h}$

Multiply $\frac{3}{x^{2}}$ by $\frac{{(x + h)}^{2}}{{(x + h)}^{2}}$ .

$\frac{\frac{3 x^{2}}{{(x + h)}^{2} x^{2}} - \frac{3 {(x + h)}^{2}}{x^{2} {(x + h)}^{2}}}{h}$

Reorder the factors of ${(x + h)}^{2} x^{2}$ .

$\frac{\frac{3 x^{2}}{x^{2} {(x + h)}^{2}} - \frac{3 {(x + h)}^{2}}{x^{2} {(x + h)}^{2}}}{h}$

Combine the numerators over the common denominator.

$\frac{\frac{3 x^{2} - 3 {(x + h)}^{2}}{x^{2} {(x + h)}^{2}}}{h}$

Simplify the numerator.

Factor $3$ out of $3 x^{2} - 3 {(x + h)}^{2}$ .

Factor $3$ out of $3 x^{2}$ .

$\frac{\frac{3 (x^{2}) - 3 {(x + h)}^{2}}{x^{2} {(x + h)}^{2}}}{h}$

Factor $3$ out of $- 3 {(x + h)}^{2}$ .

$\frac{\frac{3 (x^{2}) + 3 (- {(x + h)}^{2})}{x^{2} {(x + h)}^{2}}}{h}$

Factor $3$ out of $3 (x^{2}) + 3 (- {(x + h)}^{2})$ .

$\frac{\frac{3 (x^{2} - {(x + h)}^{2})}{x^{2} {(x + h)}^{2}}}{h}$

Since both terms are perfect squares, factor using the difference of squares formula, $a^{2} - b^{2} = (a + b) (a - b)$ where $a = x$ and $b = x + h$ .

$\frac{\frac{3 ((x + x + h) (x - (x + h)))}{x^{2} {(x + h)}^{2}}}{h}$

Simplify.

Add $x$ and $x$ .

$\frac{\frac{3 ((2 x + h) (x - (x + h)))}{x^{2} {(x + h)}^{2}}}{h}$

Apply the distributive property.

$\frac{\frac{3 ((2 x + h) (x - x - h))}{x^{2} {(x + h)}^{2}}}{h}$

Subtract $x$ from $x$ .

$\frac{\frac{3 ((2 x + h) (0 - h))}{x^{2} {(x + h)}^{2}}}{h}$

Subtract $h$ from $0$ .

$\frac{\frac{3 ((2 x + h) \cdot - 1 h)}{x^{2} {(x + h)}^{2}}}{h}$

Factor out negative.

$\frac{\frac{3 (- ((2 x + h) h))}{x^{2} {(x + h)}^{2}}}{h}$

$\frac{\frac{3 \cdot - 1 (2 x + h) h}{x^{2} {(x + h)}^{2}}}{h}$

Combine exponents.

Factor out negative.

$\frac{\frac{- (3 (2 x + h) h)}{x^{2} {(x + h)}^{2}}}{h}$

Multiply $3$ by $- 1$ .

$\frac{\frac{- 3 ((2 x + h) h)}{x^{2} {(x + h)}^{2}}}{h}$

$\frac{\frac{- 3 (2 x + h) h}{x^{2} {(x + h)}^{2}}}{h}$

Move the negative in front of the fraction.

$\frac{- \frac{3 (2 x + h) h}{x^{2} {(x + h)}^{2}}}{h}$

Multiply the numerator by the reciprocal of the denominator.

$- \frac{3 (2 x + h) h}{x^{2} {(x + h)}^{2}} \cdot \frac{1}{h}$

Cancel the common factor of $h$ .

Move the leading negative in $- \frac{3 (2 x + h) h}{x^{2} {(x + h)}^{2}}$ into the numerator.

$\frac{- 3 (2 x + h) h}{x^{2} {(x + h)}^{2}} \cdot \frac{1}{h}$

Factor $h$ out of $- 3 (2 x + h) h$ .

$\frac{h (- 3 (2 x + h))}{x^{2} {(x + h)}^{2}} \cdot \frac{1}{h}$

Cancel the common factor.

$\frac{h (- 3 (2 x + h))}{x^{2} {(x + h)}^{2}} \cdot \frac{1}{h}$

Rewrite the expression.

$\frac{- 3 (2 x + h)}{x^{2} {(x + h)}^{2}}$

Move the negative in front of the fraction.

$- \frac{3 (2 x + h)}{x^{2} {(x + h)}^{2}}$

Step 5

Find the Difference Quotient f(x)=3/(x^2)

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