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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.
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 ).
The formula simplifies: = ′ (). The unit tangent vector determines the orientation of the curve, or the forward direction, corresponding to the increasing values of the parameter. The unit tangent vector taken as a curve traces the spherical image of the original curve.
One example of an optimization problem is: Find the shortest curve between two points on a surface, assuming that the curve must also lie on the surface. If the surface is a plane, then the shortest curve is a line. But if the surface is, for example, egg-shaped, then the shortest path is not immediately clear.
In calculus, the chain rule is a formula that expresses the derivative of the composition of two differentiable functions f and g in terms of the derivatives of f and g.More precisely, if = is the function such that () = (()) for every x, then the chain rule is, in Lagrange's notation, ′ = ′ (()) ′ (). or, equivalently, ′ = ′ = (′) ′.
In physics this theorem is one of the ways of defining a conservative force. By placing φ as potential, ∇ φ is a conservative field . Work done by conservative forces does not depend on the path followed by the object, but only the end points, as the above equation shows.
Let be a function in the Lebesgue space ([,]).We say that in ([,]) is a weak derivative of if ′ = ()for all infinitely differentiable functions with () = =.. Generalizing to dimensions, if and are in the space () of locally integrable functions for some open set, and if is a multi-index, we say that is the -weak derivative of if
A differentiable function. In mathematics, a differentiable function of one real variable is a function whose derivative exists at each point in its domain.In other words, the graph of a differentiable function has a non-vertical tangent line at each interior point in its domain.