Average rate of change worksheet for Calculus
Calculus treats average rate of change as the slope of a secant line, and the difference quotient as the step just before the derivative: let h shrink to zero and the secant becomes the tangent. Expect rational and cubic functions, with answers fully simplified in terms of x and h.
Also taught in Precalculus, Algebra 2 and Algebra 1, each at its own level and with its own examples.
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Sigma Prep · sigmaprep.io/worksheets Name Average Rate of Change Date Period Find each rate of change, and answer what is asked. Leave answers exact.
Free math worksheets at sigmaprep.io/worksheets© 2026 Sigma Prep |
Sigma Prep · sigmaprep.io/worksheets Name Average Rate of ChangeAnswer keyVersion 2 Date Period Find each rate of change, and answer what is asked. Leave answers exact.
Free math worksheets at sigmaprep.io/worksheets© 2026 Sigma Prep |
How to do these
Simplify for
- Expand (x + h)³ = x³ + 3x²h + 3xh² + h³.
- Subtract x³; every term left has a factor of h.
- Divide each term by h.
The answer is .
Where students go wrong
Dropping the parentheses in f(x + h) - f(x). The minus sign has to reach every term of f(x); if it does not, terms without h are left over and nothing cancels when you divide.
Also called average rate of change over an interval, difference quotient or slope of a secant line.
What you can put on this worksheet
- Average rate of change over an interval
- Average rate of change of on →
- The difference quotient
- Simplify for →
- The equation of the secant line
- Write the equation of the secant line of from to →
- The general difference quotient
- Simplify for →
- From a table
- Find the average rate of change from to . →
- Are the rates increasing or decreasing?
- Find the average rate of change over each interval. Are the rates increasing,
decreasing or the same, and what does that show?
→ ; the same, so the graph is a line - Average speed and the speed limit
- A car passes mile marker 32, and 30 minutes later it passes mile marker 67. The speed limit is 55 mph. Must it have gone faster than the limit at some moment? → Average speed mph; yes: by the mean value theorem it went exactly 70 mph at some moment
- From a graph, fractional endpoints
- The graph of is shown. Find its average rate of change on →