How do you find the slope of the tangent line to the graph of the function $f(x)=x^2-4$ at (1,-3)?

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Answer 1 · 2017-05-12T07:51:17

See explanation.

The slope of a tangent line at $(x_0,f(x_0))$ is equal to the value of the first derivative at $x_0$ : $f^'(x_0)$ .

Here we have:

$f(x)=x^2-4$

$f^'(x)=2x$

$f^'(1)=2$

Answer **The slope of the tangent line at $x_0=1$ is $2$ . **

How do you find the slope of the tangent line to the graph of the function f(x)=x^2-4f(x)=x^2-4 at (1,-3)?