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Partial Derivatives Compressed

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3 views

Partial Derivatives Compressed

Uploaded by

esebabi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The derivative of a single variable function is obtained as

We therefore think of the two partial derivatives as derivatives of


single variable functions; looking at each variable individually.
Some of the possible alternate notations for partial derivatives
Given the function 𝑧 = 𝑓 (𝑥, 𝑦)
IMPLICIT DIFFERENTIATION.

Recalling how implicit differentiation works for functions of one variable


If we have a function in terms of three variables 𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑧 we
will assume that 𝑧 is in fact a function of 𝑥 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑦. In other words,
𝑧 = 𝑧 𝑥, 𝑦 .

Then whenever we differentiate 𝑧’𝑠 with respect to 𝑥 we will


𝜕𝑧
use the chain rule and add on a
𝜕𝑥

 Likewise, whenever we differentiate 𝑧’𝑠 with respect to 𝑦 we


𝜕𝑧
will add on a
𝜕𝑦
𝜕𝑧 𝜕𝑧
 For 𝜕𝑥 we add on a 𝜕𝑥 whenever we differentiate a 𝑧 from the
𝜕𝑧
chain rule and solve for 𝜕𝑥
𝜕𝑧 𝜕𝑧
 𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝜕𝑦
we add on a 𝜕𝑦whenever we differentiate a z from
𝜕𝑧
the chain rule and solve for 𝜕𝑦
𝝏𝒛
Now let’s take care of
𝝏𝒚
 𝑓𝑥 (𝑥, 𝑦) represents the rate of change of the function 𝑓 (𝑥, 𝑦) as we
change 𝑥 and hold 𝑦 fixed
 𝑓𝑦 (𝑥, 𝑦) represents the rate of change of 𝑓 (𝑥, 𝑦) as we change 𝑦 and
hold 𝑥 fixed.
 A function of two variables there will be a total of four
possible second order derivatives
 First order derivatives

 First order derivatives


It turns out that the mixed partial derivatives 𝒇𝒙𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒇𝒚𝒙 are equal for most
functions that one meets in practice
Third and higher order partial derivatives

If all three of these are continuous then Clairaut’s Theorem holds


In this case remember that we differentiate
from left to right
In this case remember that we
differentiate from left to right
We’re doing here is differentiating f with respect to each variable in it and then multiplying
each of these by the derivative of that variable with respect to t
𝑅𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑥 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑦
In this case if we were to substitute in for 𝑥 and 𝑦 we would get that 𝑧 is a
function of 𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡 and so it makes sense that we would be computing partial
derivatives here and that there would be two of them.

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