The change of $Y$ per $X$ is slope. And some say the change of slope per $X$ is derivative. So it is like slope of a slope!
But slopes are always numbers like the slope of $2x$ is $2$. But derivates are not just numbers like the derivative of $3x^2$ is $6x$. This is confusing me can someone please explain? Thank you.
The derivative of $f$ at the point $x$ is the slope of the tangent line to $f$ at the point $x$. So for $f(x) = 3x^2$, we have $f'(x) = 6x$. What this means is that the derivative function $f'(x)$ takes in a value $x$ and returns the slope of the tangent line of $f$ at the point $x$. You can view the derivative function as a function that takes in points and returns tangent slopes to $f$ at said points. Each of these slopes is simply a number, but of course the tangent slope depends on what point you are computing the tangent at, hence the dependence of $f'$ on $x$.