Step functions enforce some threshold on a variable e.g.: discard anything below a certain value. Given $u(x)$ any value equal to or greater than $0$ would trigger a positive output ($1$ in this case), everything else just equals zero. With $3u(x-8)$ everything equal to or greater than $8$ triggers a non-zero output ($3$ in this case).

$$u(x) \begin{cases} 0 & \mbox{if} & x < 0 \\ 1 & \mbox{if} & x \geq 0 \\ \end{cases}$$

Step functions are like switches. We could utilise them to trigger a signal whenever a threshold is crossed. Imagine opening the floodgates whenever the water level crosses a certain point or turning of the electric lighting when the ambient light brightness exceeds a given measure.

Perceptrons, binary classifiers and the neurons in artificial neural networks require an activation function in order to produce any output. The step function is a valid option for the activation function but poses a challenge in analysis because of the jump discontinuity at $x=0$.

$$\sigma(x) = \frac{1}{1+e^{-x}}$$

The sigmoid function $\sigma(x)$, because of its differentiability , is sometimes used as an alternative to the step function $u(x)$.

Some may choose to introduce a weight $\beta$ to the input variables in order to obtain a sigmoid curve more reminiscent of the step we’re trying to mimic. By tweaking the $\beta$ term, one can obtain a result that approaches the step function, yet remains differentiable throughout its entire domain . The graph below demonstrates the output of a sigmoid function with a $\beta$ of $1$, $2$, $10$ and $100$, where a plot of $\beta = 100$ approximates the step function quite closely in comparison to the other plots.

$$\sigma(x) = \frac{1}{1+e^{-x\beta}}$$

However enticing, during this post we’ll keep our eyes set on the unweighted sigmoid.

Derivation of the Sigmoid

Let’s find the derivative of the unweighted sigmoid.

$$\frac{d}{dx} \sigma(x) = \frac{d}{dx} \frac{1}{1+e^{-x}}$$

Let’s stick to the Lagrange notation for a bit where we notate the derivative to $f(x)$ as $f’(x)$. Given $f(x) = \frac{a(x)}{b(x)}$, the quotient rule would state that:

$$f'(x) = \frac{a'(x)\cdot b(x) - a(x)\cdot b'(x)}{b(x)^2}$$

Now that we know how to work out the derivative to a quotient we can basically work out $a’(x)$ and $b’(x)$ in order to fill in the blanks later.

$$% show how to differentiate numerator and denominator \begin{align} a(x) &= 1 \\ a'(x) &= \frac{d}{dx}1 = 0 \\ b(x) &= 1+e^{-x} \\ b'(x) &= \frac{d}{dx}1 + \frac{d}{dx}e^{-x} = -1 e^{-x} \\ \end{align}$$

Working out the math for the derivative to $\frac{1}{1+e^{-x}}$ leads to the following result, given the quotient rule:

$$f'(x) = \frac{-1\cdot (-1 e^{-x})}{(1+e^{-x})^2} = \frac{e^{-x}}{(1+e^{-x})^2}$$

It’s pretty clear that $e^{-x}$ is equal to $(1+e^{-x})-1$. That part is trivial to understand, however; it is pretty brilliant to have the insight to organize the tokens as such in order to be able to eliminate tokens in the next step through this substitution.

$$\frac{(1+e^{-x})-1}{(1+e^{-x})^2}$$

Go the extra mile to separate the expression into two separate terms:

$$\frac{(1+e^{-x})}{(1+e^{-x})^2} - \frac{1}{(1+e^{-x})^2}$$

We can simplify the first term since $(1+e^{-x})$ occurs in both the numerator and denominator. The second term can be simplified by expressing the value as the square of something which is simply $1 = 1^2$, yet this operation paves the way to squaring the entire term since $\frac{a^n}{b^n} = (\frac{a}{b})^n$.

$$\frac{1}{(1+e^{-x})} - \bigg(\frac{1}{(1+e^{-x})}\bigg)^2$$

Since $\sigma(x)$ equals $\frac{1}{1+e^{-x}}$ we can simplify our result to:

$$\sigma(x) - \sigma(x)^2$$

which gives us the beautiful derivative of a sigmoid.

They don’t make it any simpler than this .