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The higher-order derivative test or general derivative test is able to determine whether a function's critical points are maxima, minima, or points of inflection for a wider variety of functions than the second-order derivative test. As shown below, the second-derivative test is mathematically identical to the special case of n = 1 in the ...
First-order approximation is the term scientists use for a slightly better answer. [3] Some simplifying assumptions are made, and when a number is needed, an answer with only one significant figure is often given ("the town has 4 × 10 3, or four thousand, residents"). In the case of a first-order approximation, at least one number given is exact.
The Rado graph, an infinite graph that models exactly the first-order sentences that are almost always true of finite graphs. Glebskiĭ et al. (1969) and, independently, Fagin (1976) proved a zero–one law for first-order graph logic; Fagin's proof used the compactness theorem.
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.
In numerical analysis, order of accuracy quantifies the rate of convergence of a numerical approximation of a differential equation to the exact solution. Consider u {\displaystyle u} , the exact solution to a differential equation in an appropriate normed space ( V , | | | | ) {\displaystyle (V,||\ ||)} .
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.
For this reason, the Euler method is said to be a first-order method, while the midpoint method is second order. We can extrapolate from the above table that the step size needed to get an answer that is correct to three decimal places is approximately 0.00001, meaning that we need 400,000 steps.
In this case a point that is neither a pole nor a zero is viewed as a pole (or zero) of order 0. A meromorphic function may have infinitely many zeros and poles. This is the case for the gamma function (see the image in the infobox), which is meromorphic in the whole complex plane, and has a simple pole at every non-positive integer.