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The derivative of ′ is the second derivative, denoted as ″ , and the derivative of ″ is the third derivative, denoted as ‴ . By continuing this process, if it exists, the n {\displaystyle n} th derivative is the derivative of the ( n − 1 ) {\displaystyle (n-1)} th derivative or the derivative of order ...
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.
It is particularly common when the equation y = f(x) is regarded as a functional relationship between dependent and independent variables y and x. Leibniz's notation makes this relationship explicit by writing the derivative as: [1].
the partial differential of y with respect to any one of the variables x 1 is the principal part of the change in y resulting from a change dx 1 in that one variable. The partial differential is therefore involving the partial derivative of y with respect to x 1.
A simple two-point estimation is to compute the slope of a nearby secant line through the points (x, f(x)) and (x + h, f(x + h)). [1] Choosing a small number h, h represents a small change in x, and it can be either positive or negative. The slope of this line is (+) ().
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.
One way of improving the approximation is to take a quadratic approximation. That is to say, the linearization of a real-valued function f(x) at the point x 0 is a linear polynomial a + b(x − x 0), and it may be possible to get a better approximation by considering a quadratic polynomial a + b(x − x 0) + c(x − x 0) 2.
By Darboux's theorem, the derivative of any differentiable function is a Darboux function. In particular, the derivative of the function x ↦ x 2 sin ( 1 / x ) {\displaystyle x\mapsto x^{2}\sin(1/x)} is a Darboux function even though it is not continuous at one point.