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Partial Derivatives - Notation and examples

“Total” derivatives are what one learns about in an introductory calculus


course. For instance
d ³ 2 ´
x + sin(x) = 2x + cos(x)
dx
Alternately if one defines the function f (x) = x2 + sin(x) the same
calculation can be written with the following equivalent notations:
df
= f 0 (x) = 2x + cos(x)
dx
“Partial” derivatives are very similar. Typically one takes a partial deriva-
tive of a function of two or more variables. Since these functions contain
more than one variable, one must stipulate which variable one is differ-
entiating with respect to. As a template example consider the function
f (x, y) = x2 y 3
The partial derivative of f in x is found by differentiating f in x treating
y as a constant. So for example,
∂f
= 2xy 3
∂x
Similarly, the partial derivative of f in y is found by differentiating f in
y treating x as a constant. Thus,
∂f
= 3x2 y 2
∂y
Note from this example that ∂f
∂x
and ∂f∂y
can be different! Also, the “d” in
d
dx
has been replaced with the “partial” sign ∂. This is done so one can
distinguish between the regular total derivative and the partial derivative.
As with total derivatives, different notations are used. The following
notations are equivalent:
∂f
= fx (x, y) = Dx f (x, y)
∂x
Likewise for partial derivatives in y we have
∂f
= fy (x, y) = Dy f (x, y)
∂y
Now for some examples.

1
Example 1 Let f (x, y) = x3 sin(y) + y 2 . Then
∂f ∂f
= 3x2 sin(y) , = x3 cos(y) + 2y
∂x ∂y

Note, in particular, ∂x (y 2 ) = 0 since y is being treated as a constant!!
Alternate notations would be
fx (x, y) = 3x2 sin(y) , fy (x, y) = x3 cos(y) + 2y
y
Example 2 Let f (x, y) = x2 +1
= y(x2 + 1)−1 . Then

∂f 2xy ∂f 1
=− 2 , = 2
∂x (x + 1)2 ∂y x +1
2
Example 3 Here’s an example using the chain rule: Let f (x, y) = e xy .
Then
∂f ∂u 2 ∂ ³ 2´ 2
= eu = exy · xy = y 2 exy
∂x ∂x ∂x
In a similar fashion
∂f ∂u 2 ∂ ³ 2´ 2
= eu = exy · xy = 2xyexy
∂y ∂y ∂y

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