Chapter 14: Partial Derivatives

Jose Rubén Niño Quevedo

2018-II

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1 14.1 Functions of Several Variables

2 14.2 Limits and Continuity

3 14.3 Partial Derivatives

4 14.4 Tangent Planes and Linear Approximations

5 14.5 The Chain Rule

6 14.6 Directional Derivatives and the Gradient Vector

7 14.7 Maximum and Minimum Values

8 14.8 Lagrange Multipliers

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 14.1 Functions of Several Variables

14.1 Functions of Several Variables I

In this section we study functions of two or more variables from four points of
view:
Verbally: By a description in words.
Numerically: By a table of values.
Algebraically: By an explicit formula.
Visually By a graph or level curves.

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 14.1 Functions of Several Variables

Functions of Two Variables I

The variables x and y are independent variables and z is the dependent

variable.

Figure: Function of Two Variables.

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 14.1 Functions of Several Variables

Functions of Two Variables II

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 14.1 Functions of Several Variables

Functions of Two Variables III

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 14.1 Functions of Several Variables

Graphs I
If f is a function of two variables with domain D then

f : D ⊆ R2 → R
(x, y ) 7→ z

and another way of visualizing the behavior of a function of two variables is to

consider its graph. The graph of f is the set

graph(f ) := {(x, y , z) ∈ R3 | z = f (x, y ) and (x, y ) ∈ D}.

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 14.1 Functions of Several Variables

Graphs II

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 14.1 Functions of Several Variables

Level Curves I

The Level Curves or Contour Curves of a function f of two variables are the
curves with equations f (x, y ) = k, where k is a constant (in the range of f ).

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 14.1 Functions of Several Variables

Level Curves II

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 14.1 Functions of Several Variables

Level Curves III

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 14.1 Functions of Several Variables

Functions of Three or More Variables I

Function of three variables

f : D ⊆ R3 → R
(x, y , z) 7→ f (x, y , z)

It’s very difficult to visualize a function f of three variables by its graph, since that
would lie in a four-dimensional space. However, by examining its level surfaces,
we do gain some insight into f .

A function of n variables is a rule that assigns a number z = f (x1 , x2 , . . . , xn ) to

an n−tuple (x1 , x2 , . . . , xn ) of real numbers. Thus,

f : D ⊆ Rn → R
(x1 , x2 , . . . , xn ) 7→ z

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 14.1 Functions of Several Variables

Functions of Three or More Variables II

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 14.2 Limits and Continuity

Limit I

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 14.2 Limits and Continuity

Limit II

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 14.2 Limits and Continuity

Limit III

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 14.2 Limits and Continuity

Continuity I

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 14.2 Limits and Continuity

Continuity II

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 14.2 Limits and Continuity

Functions of Three or More Variables I

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 14.3 Partial Derivatives

14.3 Partial Derivatives I

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 14.3 Partial Derivatives

14.3 Partial Derivatives II

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 14.3 Partial Derivatives

Interpretations of Partial Derivatives I

Partial derivatives can also be interpreted as rates of change. If z = f (x, y ), then

∂z/∂x represents the rate of change of z with respect to x when y is fixed.
Similarly, ∂z/∂y represents the rate of change of z with respect to y when x is
fixed.

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 14.3 Partial Derivatives

Interpretations of Partial Derivatives II

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 14.3 Partial Derivatives

Functions of More Than Two Variables, Higher

Derivatives & PDEs I

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 14.3 Partial Derivatives

Functions of More Than Two Variables, Higher

Derivatives & PDEs II

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 14.3 Partial Derivatives

Functions of More Than Two Variables, Higher

Derivatives & PDEs III

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 14.4 Tangent Planes and Linear Approximations

Tangent Planes I

The tangent plane to the

surface S at the point P is
defined to be the plane that
contains both tangent lines
T1 and T2 .

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 14.4 Tangent Planes and Linear Approximations

Linear Approximations I

The tangent plane approximates the graph of f well near the point of tangency.

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 14.4 Tangent Planes and Linear Approximations

Linear Approximations II

It’s sometimes hard to use Definition 7 directly to check the differentiability of a

function, but the next theorem provides a convenient sufficient condition for
differentiability.

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 14.4 Tangent Planes and Linear Approximations

Linear Approximations III

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 14.4 Tangent Planes and Linear Approximations

Differentials I

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 14.5 The Chain Rule

14.5 The Chain Rule I

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 14.5 The Chain Rule

14.5 The Chain Rule II

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 14.5 The Chain Rule

Implicit Differentiation I

We suppose that an equation of the form F (x, y ) = 0 defines y implicitly as a

differentiable function of x, where F (x, f (x)) = 0 for all x in the domain of f . If
F is differentiable, we can apply the Chain Rule to differentiate both sides of the
equation F (x, y ) = 0 with respect to x. Since both x and y are functions of x, we
obtain

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 14.5 The Chain Rule

Implicit Differentiation II

Now we suppose that z is given implicitly as a function z = f (x, y ) by an

equation of the form F (x, y , z) = 0. This means that F (x, y , f (x, y )) = 0 for all
(x, y ) in the domain of f . If F and f are differentiable, then we can use the Chain
Rule to differentiate the equation F (x, y , z) = 0 as follows:

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 14.5 The Chain Rule

Implicit Differentiation III

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 14.6 Directional Derivatives and the Gradient Vector

Directional Derivatives I

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 14.6 Directional Derivatives and the Gradient Vector

Directional Derivatives II

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 14.6 Directional Derivatives and the Gradient Vector

Gradient Vector

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 14.6 Directional Derivatives and the Gradient Vector

Maximizing the Directional Derivative

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 14.6 Directional Derivatives and the Gradient Vector

Tangent Planes to Level Surfaces

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 14.7 Maximum and Minimum Values

Maximum and Minimum Values I

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 14.7 Maximum and Minimum Values

Maximum and Minimum Values II

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 14.7 Maximum and Minimum Values

Maximum and Minimum Values III

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 14.7 Maximum and Minimum Values

Absolute Maximum and Minimum Values

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 14.8 Lagrange Multipliers

Lagrange Multipliers I

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 14.8 Lagrange Multipliers

Lagrange Multipliers II

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 14.8 Lagrange Multipliers

Two Constraints I

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