What is Calculus Power Rule? In formula, it can be written like this:

 

Note that the number a can be any number, negative, postive, a fraction, and even 0. But well if that's 0 the function will be just 1, a constant, meaning the derivative is just 0. If a is a fraction, for example 1/2, then a-1=-1/2, so on so forth. Let's do an example:

Find derivative of y¹:

Solution: According to the formula above, we can get d/dx y¹= 1 * y^1-1 = 1 * y⁰ = 1*1=1