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If you find it difficult, the difference quotient formula is a wonderful tool to calculate the slope of a secant line of the curve. Here, will discuss the difference quotient formula basics, quotient rule derivatives, and the differentiation formula. With a depth understanding of these concepts, you can quickly find solutions for various complex mathematics problems.

### Difference Quotient

The first time when you heard about ‘difference quotient’ then you may be blank or not sure of this term. This is actually a crazy formula that involves calculation of different elements, functions, graphs, secants, and even worse. However, we make sure that once you will finish reading this post, you would be an expert in difference quotient. If we start with the simple definition then the difference quotient is the calculation of the slope of a secant line between any two points on the graph of a function, F(x).

#### Differential Quotient Graph

While reviewing, a function is the line or curve has only one value either for x coordinate or y coordinates. For the number x, once you will plug-in the function, the output value is calculated automatically for the given function. In simple terms, the difference quotient formula helps to find the slope when you are working on the curve. Here, is a quick look at the difference quotient graph and associated formula for a better understanding of the concept.

Based on the diagram given above, the formula for the secant line curve can be given as –

$\ \frac{y_2-y_1}{x_2 – x_1}$

Based on the above discussion, this is clear that we have written formula here for the secant line. This is a special line that will pass between any two points for a curve. These two points are generally labeled as x or (x + h) at the x-axis. As we are working on a function, its representation should be in the form of function online like f (x) and f (x + h) on our y-axis, respectively. You can further practice the formula to solve the most complex problem by putting values in the formula.

## Difference Quotient Formula

In simple words, the difference quotient formula is the average rate of change function over a specific time interval.  Once you take the derivative of this rate of change formula then it can be measured as the instantaneous rate of change.

There are a plenty of applications related to the project that includes velocity calculation for a particular object at a given instant. Students can use this formula when studying velocity for physics class and many more.

For the single variable calculus, the difference quotient will be almost the same as the name of the expression when the limit is defined as h approaches to zero. Here, this is possible to calculate the derivative of the function. Here, is given general form of a derivative quotient formula –

$\ Difference\;Quotient\; Formula = \frac{f(x+h)-f(x)}{h}$

### Quotient Rule Formula

In calculus, quotient rule is used to govern the derivative with existing derivatives. Here, is a simple quotient rule formula that can be used to calculate the derivative of a quotient. For example –

$\ \frac{d}{dx}(\frac{u}{v}) = \frac{v \frac{du}{dx} – u \frac{dv}{dx}}{v^2}$

Simply, quotient rule is a method to determine the differentiation of a function that can be defined as the ratio of two functions that are unique in nature. Here, we have given a simple function below –

$\ f(x) = \frac{s(x)}{t(x)}$

Thus, the differentiation of the function can be given by:

$\ f(x) = \frac{s(x)}{t(x)} = \frac{t(x).s(x)-s(x).t(x)}{t(x)^2}$