Hi Joey,

I'm going to solve a similar problem.

Differentiate y = (1/2 x³ - x² + 3)⁶

This is an application of the chain rule. What you need to see is that this is a function f(x), raised to a power. You have f(x) = 1/2 x³ - x² + 3 raised to the sixth power. The chain rule for functions of the form [f(x)]ⁿ states that

If y = [f(x)]ⁿ then dy/dx = n[f(x)]^n-1 × f '(x)

In my problem n = 6 and f(x) = 1/2 x³ - x² + 3 so f '(x) = 3/2 x² - 2x. Thus

dy/dx = 6 [1/2 x³ - x² + 3]⁵ × (3/2 x² - 2x)

Now try your problem,
Harley