Read the Rule Off the Root

You'll learnhow to name an expression's outermost operation before touching a rule, when a rewrite saves you lines, and why a right answer reached the long way still costs you.

Every rule you need is already yours. What is left is the step before them: looking at an expression and naming its shape. Two students get the same right answer, one in two lines and one in seven. What did the first one see? Twelve short steps; press Next for each one.

12 STEPS · 6 QUICK CHECKS · NAME THE ROOT · REWRITE IF IT SHRINKS · THEN DIFFERENTIATE · v2

name the root · rewrite if it shrinks the tree · then differentiate

Before you start

What you're looking at

Expressions drawn as trees. One node sits at the top of each, and that node names the rule.

The question

Two students get the same right answer, one in two lines and one in seven. What did the first one see?

Step 1 / 12