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In mathematics, the derivative is a fundamental tool that quantifies the sensitivity to change of a function's output with respect to its input. The derivative of a function of a single variable at a chosen input value, when it exists, is the slope of the tangent line to the graph of the function at that point.
The elementary power rule generalizes considerably. The most general power rule is the functional power rule: for any functions f and g, ′ = () ′ = (′ + ′ ), ...
The Taylor polynomial of degree d is the polynomial of degree d which best approximates f, and its coefficients can be found by a generalization of the above formulas. Taylor's theorem gives a precise bound on how good the approximation is. If f is a polynomial of degree less than or equal to d, then the Taylor polynomial of degree d equals f.
In calculus, the differential represents the principal part of the change in a function = with respect to changes in the independent variable. The differential is defined by = ′ (), where ′ is the derivative of f with respect to , and is an additional real variable (so that is a function of and ).
Variable changes for differentiation and integration are taught in elementary calculus and the steps are rarely carried out in full. The very broad use of variable changes is apparent when considering differential equations, where the independent variables may be changed using the chain rule or the dependent variables are changed resulting in ...
The step size is =. The same illustration for = The midpoint method converges faster than the Euler method, as .. Numerical methods for ordinary differential equations are methods used to find numerical approximations to the solutions of ordinary differential equations (ODEs).
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In traditional approaches to calculus, differentials (e.g. dx, dy, dt, etc.) are interpreted as infinitesimals. There are several methods of defining infinitesimals rigorously, but it is sufficient to say that an infinitesimal number is smaller in absolute value than any positive real number, just as an infinitely large number is larger than ...