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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.
After establishing the critical points of a function, the second-derivative test uses the value of the second derivative at those points to determine whether such points are a local maximum or a local minimum. [1] If the function f is twice-differentiable at a critical point x (i.e. a point where f ′ (x) = 0), then:
For arbitrary stencil points and any derivative of order < up to one less than the number of stencil points, the finite difference coefficients can be obtained by solving the linear equations [6] ( s 1 0 ⋯ s N 0 ⋮ ⋱ ⋮ s 1 N − 1 ⋯ s N N − 1 ) ( a 1 ⋮ a N ) = d !
Given below is the five-point method for the first derivative (five-point stencil in one dimension): [10] ′ = (+) + (+) + + (), where [, +]. For other stencil configurations and derivative orders, the Finite Difference Coefficients Calculator is a tool that can be used to generate derivative approximation methods for any stencil with any ...
In an analogous way, one can obtain finite difference approximations to higher order derivatives and differential operators. For example, by using the above central difference formula for f ′(x + h / 2 ) and f ′(x − h / 2 ) and applying a central difference formula for the derivative of f ′ at x, we obtain the central difference approximation of the second derivative of f:
The quintic Hermite interpolation based on the function (), its first (′) and second derivatives (″) at two different points (and ) can be used for example to interpolate the position of an object based on its position, velocity and acceleration.
The derivative of the function at a point is the slope of the line tangent to the curve at the point. Slope of the constant function is zero, because the tangent line to the constant function is horizontal and its angle is zero. In other words, the value of the constant function, y, will not change as the value of x increases or decreases.
Thus, the second partial derivative test indicates that f(x, y) has saddle points at (0, −1) and (1, −1) and has a local maximum at (,) since = <. At the remaining critical point (0, 0) the second derivative test is insufficient, and one must use higher order tests or other tools to determine the behavior of the function at this point.