ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Differentiation rules

A differentiation rule is like a recipe that helps you find out how things change. It's like figuring out how much taller you got since last year, or how fast a car is going at a certain time.

There are different kinds of differentiation rules, but they all help you figure out something's rate of change. Rate of change is like how fast something is changing over time.

For example, if you want to find out how fast something is going, you might use the differentiation rule that says to take the derivative (which is a fancy math word for rate of change) of the distance function with respect to time. This tells you the speed of the object at any given time.

Another rule helps you figure out what the slope of the line tangent to a curve is. This helps you find the direction something is moving in. It's kind of like looking at a map and seeing which way a road is turning.

Overall, differentiation rules are like tools that help you understand how things are changing over time or in different ways. They can be a little tricky to understand at first, but with practice, they can open up a whole world of possibilities for understanding the world around us.