We know that derivative of $x^n$ is $nx^{(n-1)}$ if $n$ is an integer. My question is how do we define derivative of $x^r$ is $r$ is an irrational number. For example what is the derivative of $x^\sqrt2$ or $x^\pi$?
Consider the real-valued function  $f(x)=x^r$ where $r$ is a real number.  (1) For what values of $x$ and $r$, is this function differentiable?  (2) How do you prove the power rule, when $f(x)$ is differentiable?  It would be nice if the proof is accessible to a 12th grade student.  EDIT: Perhaps, I have not been very clear about my question.  I am not satisfied with the "textbook proofs" I have seen.  Please established the existence (of the derivative) first before proving the power rule.  That is, please consider first question first.  This is the reason why I call the question a mathematical engineering question.  (If we can we bring high level math down to Grade 12 level, without loosing precision, then I call it good mathematical engineering.)
Is $K[a,b]=K(a,b)$ for algebraic $a, b$? Will some parents be offended when being asked, "Is it male or female?" If I ask the parent about a baby's gender, will it be impolite or not appropriate to say, "Is it male or female?"  Is there any subtle difference, in terms of politeness, among   "Is it a boy or girl?" "Is it he or she?" "is it male or female?" What is rank deficiency, and how to deal with it? Daily review limit exceeded I have just reached my limit of suggested edits for the day when I noticed someone else has 21, when the limit is 20, how can this be? How to define binary operation on arbitrary set in order to create a group structure. Check out the below program.   try {     for (String data : Files.readAllLines(Paths.get("D:/sample.txt"))){         String[] de = data.split(";");         System.out.println("Length = " + de.length);     } } catch (IOException e) {     e.printStackTrace(); }   Sample.txt:   1;2;3;4 A;B;; a;b;c;   Output:   Length = 4 Length = 2 Length = 3   Why second and third output is giving 2 and 3 instead of 4. In sample.txt file, condition  for 2nd and 3rd line is should give newline(\n or enter) immediately after giving delimiter for the third field. Can anyone help me how to get length as 4 for 2nd and 3rd line without changing the condition of the sample.txt file and how to print the values of de[2] (throws  ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException)? What are the existing datasets of world maritime routes? How do you keep user.config settings across different assembly versions in .net? I found this problem on a well-known problem solving website. It is apparently from Ramanujan.     With   $$\LARGE{a = \frac{1}{1 + \frac{e^{-2\pi}}{1 + \frac{e^{-4\pi}}{1 + \ddots}}}},$$   what is $a$?   The basic methods I know for questions of this type were not helpful to me.  I do not require a full solution, but feel free to post one if you would like. Hints or lecture notes on how to solve problems of this nature would be appreciated.   Keep in mind that I am at an undergraduate level in mathematics. Is it appropriate to buy a "thank you" gift for a PhD supervisor? Is it possible to annotate equations (i.e. arrow signs/curly braces) to define each variable? I have quite a simple question. I was wondering if it was possible to do something like this in LaTeX:    But formatted a little more nicely.  It doesn't need to be arrows necessarily. Just some form of annotation marker. Why do only two sexes exist for animals? Why, from the natural selection point of view, do only two sexes exist for animals? Positrons versus holes as positive charge carriers : [The Dirac sea is a theoretical model of the vacuum as an infinite sea of particles with negative energy. It was first postulated by the British physicist Paul Dirac in 1930 to explain the anomalous negative-energy quantum states predicted by the Dirac equation for relativistic electrons. The positron, the antimatter counterpart of the electron, was originally conceived of as a hole in the Dirac sea, well before its experimental discovery in 1932.]  and:  [Dirac's idea is completely correct in the context of solid state physics, where the valence band in a solid can be regarded as a "sea" of electrons. Holes in this sea indeed occur, and are extremely important for understanding the effects of semiconductors, though they are never referred to as "positrons". Unlike in particle physics, there is an underlying positive charge — the charge of the ionic lattice — that cancels out the electric charge of the sea.]  It always confused me to think of holes as positive charge carriers in semi-conductors as not being real: real electrons move from one lattice-position to another lattice-position, which effectively looks like a positive hole in the lattice that is moving in the other direction, but in reality a real electron moves, the hole is kind of an "illusion".  On the other hand the positrons are always introduced as real hard-core particles.   The quotes from the Wikipedia article make me unsure: how should I look upon these phenomena?   Edit: holes in a Dirac sea give rise to real pos. entities in one case and to unreal pos. entities in another - how can we distinguish, is it a matter of formalism? Proof that a Combination is an integer Why the Principle of Least Action? Set spawn point for a specific player I made a server and me and one of my friends want to do a prank on another friend, because he stole all my enchanted diamond armor.  The Prank  I want to set a player's spawn point in a pit of lava, how would I do this without affecting anyone else's spawn point? How to break out of jQuery each Loop How can I remove whitespace when declaring an XSL variable? Possible to turn on Airplane mode with WiFi on only? I know the definition of Airplane mode is all communications and radio signals are blocked. But is it possible to turn off the "calling/receiving" part of the phone so your phone is not connecting to a cell tower and only allow Wifi? I've looked into a couple of apps in Google Play but they're either not working or out of date with newer versions of Android.   I know there is strong opinions on both sides of the issue but I'm worried about radiation from my phone since i use it a lot in bed and I hold the phone close to my head and face. At night I'm not worried about receiving calls, so I just want to turn off the phone part and  use WiFi. Is there a way? Or am i just crazy and paranoid? Hat duplicates when info is expanded