In mathematics the rate of change of a function at a point is the change in output of the function per change in input. In other words it measures how fast the function is changing. To calculate the rate of change we take the difference in output and divide it by the difference in input. For example if a function f(x) is increasing at a rate of 2 units per second we would say that the rate of change of the function at that point is 2.
There are many applications of rates of change in mathematics. One example is in calculus where the rate of change of a function is used to find the slope of a graph of that function. Another example is in physics where the rate of change of a quantity is used to calculate the velocity or acceleration of an object.
Rates of change can also be used in statistics to find the rate of change of a variable over time. For example if we want to know the rate of change of the population of a city we can take the difference in population from one year to the next and divide it by the difference in time. This will give us the rate of change of the population per year.
What is rate of change in math?
The rate of change is the rate at which one quantity changes with respect to another.
