Differentiation is one of the two key components of calculus. It is the process of finding the derivative of a line. The derivative is the gradient of a tangent.

Without calculus, you can find the average rate of change by calculating the difference between two points. However, this only gives us a static unchanging gradient.

It’s quick, but it’s imprecise.When representing the gradient of a set of results with an average rate of change between two points, There’s no way to know what the line actually looks like between those points. To find that, we need to be able to find the gradient using only one point (a tangent instead of a secant line). By using only one point, we are able to find the instantaneous rate of change, rather than an average. This is differentiation.