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A simple two-point estimation is to compute the slope of a nearby secant line through the points (x, f(x)) and (x + h, f(x + h)). [1] Choosing a small number h, h represents a small change in x, and it can be either positive or negative. The slope of this line is (+) ().
The second derivative of a function f can be used to determine the concavity of the graph of f. [2] A function whose second derivative is positive is said to be concave up (also referred to as convex), meaning that the tangent line near the point where it touches the function will lie below the graph of the function.
The ratio in the definition of the derivative is the slope of the line through two points on the graph of the function , specifically the points (, ()) and (+, (+)). As h {\displaystyle h} is made smaller, these points grow closer together, and the slope of this line approaches the limiting value, the slope of the tangent to the graph of ...
If D(a, b) < 0 then (a, b) is a saddle point of f. If D(a, b) = 0 then the point (a, b) could be any of a minimum, maximum, or saddle point (that is, the test is inconclusive). Sometimes other equivalent versions of the test are used. In cases 1 and 2, the requirement that f xx f yy − f xy 2 is positive at (x, y) implies that f xx and f yy ...
The points where this is not true are determined by a condition on the derivative of f. The circle, for instance, can be pasted together from the graphs of the two functions ± √ 1 - x 2. In a neighborhood of every point on the circle except (−1, 0) and (1, 0), one of these two
A finite difference is a mathematical expression of the form f (x + b) − f (x + a).If a finite difference is divided by b − a, one gets a difference quotient.The approximation of derivatives by finite differences plays a central role in finite difference methods for the numerical solution of differential equations, especially boundary value problems.
The method is based on finite differences where the differentiation operators exhibit summation-by-parts properties. Typically, these operators consist of differentiation matrices with central difference stencils in the interior with carefully chosen one-sided boundary stencils designed to mimic integration-by-parts in the discrete setting.
The process of finding the difference quotient is called differentiation. Given a function defined at several points of the real line, the difference quotient at that point is a way of encoding the small-scale (i.e., from the point to the next) behavior of the function.