 Adjoint of differentiation on affine polynomials

Give the real vector space of degree-at-most-one polynomials the inner product $⟨f,g⟩={\int }_{-1}^{1}fg$. In coordinates $f=a+bt$, $g=c+dt$, this is $2ac+2bd/3$. Since $Df=b$, the adjoint identity requires $2bc=⟨a+bt,D^{\ast }(c+dt)⟩$ for every $a,b$. Comparing the two coefficients yields the displayed formula. The adjoint operator depends on both the inner product and the domain; a formal integration-by-parts sign without the boundary term would give the wrong answer.