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Here is a particular example, the derivative of the squaring function at the input 3. Let f(x) = x 2 be the squaring function. The derivative f′(x) of a curve at a point is the slope of the line tangent to that curve at that point. This slope is determined by considering the limiting value of the slopes of the second lines.
In calculus, a branch of mathematics, the third derivative or third-order derivative is the rate at which the second derivative, or the rate of change of the rate of change, is changing. The third derivative of a function y = f ( x ) {\displaystyle y=f(x)} can be denoted by
The derivative of () at the point = is the slope of the tangent to (, ()). [3] In order to gain an intuition for this, one must first be familiar with finding the slope of a linear equation, written in the form y = m x + b {\displaystyle y=mx+b} .
The higher order derivatives can be applied in physics; for example, while the first derivative of the position of a moving object with respect to time is the object's velocity, how the position changes as time advances, the second derivative is the object's acceleration, how the velocity changes as time advances.
These rules are given in many books, both on elementary and advanced calculus, in pure and applied mathematics. Those in this article (in addition to the above references) can be found in: Mathematical Handbook of Formulas and Tables (3rd edition), S. Lipschutz, M.R. Spiegel, J. Liu, Schaum's Outline Series, 2009, ISBN 978-0-07-154855-7.
A simple example of such a problem is to find the curve of shortest length connecting two points. If there are no constraints, the solution is a straight line between the points. However, if the curve is constrained to lie on a surface in space, then the solution is less obvious, and possibly many solutions may exist.
Suppose a function f(x, y, z) = 0, where x, y, and z are functions of each other. Write the total differentials of the variables = + = + Substitute dy into dx = [() + ()] + By using the chain rule one can show the coefficient of dx on the right hand side is equal to one, thus the coefficient of dz must be zero () + = Subtracting the second term and multiplying by its inverse gives the triple ...
The partial derivative with respect to a variable is an R-derivation on the algebra of real-valued differentiable functions on R n. The Lie derivative with respect to a vector field is an R-derivation on the algebra of differentiable functions on a differentiable manifold; more generally it is a derivation on the tensor algebra of a manifold